October 27, 2008

Hello!

Man the weeks seem to be going by faster and faster. Everything is going great here, as normal as things in London can be. It sounds like a pretty good week back home. Keep it up with the house hunt. It’s always in my prayers. Maybe the Lord just needs you in that ward for now. Everything happens on his time.

Another package sounds great!! I don’t even care what’s in it :) I’ve been trying to put some thought into what I want for Christmas and all I can think of is candy, more cheez-its, and music. I need more music... I have a few requests with that ( Insideout and Colours - Katie should have those CD's, Vatamin String Quartet - Kyle or Kevin might be able to find that, and any EFY cds, Hymns, or Conference talks that you can find). Those are things that I have noticed a lot of other missionaries have and I Enjoy. Thanks! Anything else you want to throw in would be greatly appreciated.

I found out that one of the elders (Elder Ryan Lee) in my zone is from Jacob Allen's home ward and knew Jacque. We talked about it when Elder Christensen and I went to Peckham to meet a new investigator at a baptism the Peckham Elders were having (Peckham is close but out of my area). He is really cool and knew a lot of the people I did. He was so surprised to hear that I was Jacque's cousin haha. It was funny.

As for the week... We did a lot of finding on the high streets and knocking. We dropped a few investigators and picked up a few. We have two baptismal dates right now one is Sujana Maharjan from Nepal and the Other is Mary Folusho from Africa (we met her at the baptism in Peckham, she was a referral from Elder Lee and Gasperado (from Italy)). They are both really cool and progressing well. Sujana still doesn’t know a whole lot about Christianity, but we are hoping that she will continue to learn quickly. Mary didn’t come to church on Sunday because her husband decided he finally want to go to his church again and have her come too. Hopefully she will come the next two weeks even though the second one will be stake conference in Wansworth. They have the same date of the 15th of November.

P-day was good. I Still haven’t seen Big Ben. I’ll have to do that in the next couple weeks. I’ve been up near the river, just not right there. We wrote letters and did some shopping and then went back to the football turfs we played at last week by the war museum. Other Elders in the Zone wanted to play again and I love playing, so I couldn’t pass up the chance.

Tuesday we had I left with Elder Cusick to Peckham. Elder Barker stayed to Catford with Elder Christensen. The day went really well. He is a cool guy and a great missionary. He has been out for a while now. At the end of the day we taught a lady form South America and I mentioned that Kyle went to Venezuela on his mission. Elder Cusick said that his brother did too!! The same mission as Kyle in fact and around the same time. He is a little older than Kyle, but the name sounds familiar to me and they easily could have known each other. It would be cool if they did. Let me know if you find out anything about that.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were all pretty normal. We mostly found all day. We saw Stacia and Andrew again. Things are still slow moving with them. They haven’t found a place to move to yet. We don’t even count them in our number of investigators, but we still visit every once and a while.

Saturday was a good day. We had four teaches, one with the "Graham" Family (They are a good family and I thought it was cool that their last name was Graham), another with a Lady named Shade (Sha-day) who used to be a Jehovah's Witness, and an Elderly guy named Trever who we have since dropped. The last Teach was with Mary after the baptism I have already mentioned. We actually didn’t even make it to the baptism. Traffic was horrible on the buses and it took us about 2 hours to get there, but we made it and now have a baptismal date with her!

Sunday went very well. It had a primary program that was really good, but kind of different... there were only three primary children haha. Sometimes there is up to ten, but not this time. It was pretty funny when Sujana called us in the morning saying she was on her way an hour early. We had reminded her that it was daylight savings (I’ve never had to do daylight savings before, I think its more trouble than it’s worth), but she forgot. She waited and showed up on time. Our clocks got turned back an hour so I’m guessing we are only 7 hrs ahead of you now? Shade also came. She walked about two mile by herself to get there! I was so surprised. I know she will be blessed for it and am excited to keep teaching her.

Today is P-day again, but not much of one. We already had one teach at Noon and have another one at 4:30. We couldn't really get around it, but hopefully good things will come of it

I love you all and hope things continue to go well. You are always in my prayers.

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

Elder Christensen and I at the new Visitors center (the mural behind the Christus has a really cool story, don't have time to tell it, but remind me later

Me at the war museum getting shot by a cannon

October 20, 2008

Hello everyone!

Everything is going great here in London! Last P-day we went and saw a really cool war museum. I cant remember the name, but I’ll try to send some pictures. I could have spent days in that place. We played football with all the Elders in our zone after that on some turf courts next to the museum. It was a lot of fun. I am picking up on my 'soccer' skills a lot. There are some really cool Elders in my zone. A couple are from AZ. One grew up in Jacob's ward and knows his family his name is Elder Lee. There is another one from queen creek. I know there are a few more throughout the mission, but I don’t know much about them. There is a sister who's family lives in Chandler and goes to Corona. She lived there for a few months before coming out, but is originally from Utah. When I asked her, she said she likes AZ more ;) I agreed.

Normally we would have district meeting on Tuesday, but because zone (temple) conference was Friday we didn’t. We did have correlation with our 18 year old ward mission leader (Alex). He is such a good kid. I am constantly impressed by him. Growing up in the church here in England is nothing like growing up back home. All the kids band together though and keep holding strong. The London lifestyle doesn’t effect them. Alex's family is amazing though. They hold a lot of callings is our ward, and his mom always gives us treats when we come for correlation. I think I’ve mentioned that before, but that’s how much I appreciate it! She baked us cookies this week. American cookies! What British people call cookies is totally different... We had a few teaches and did a lot of finding all day. Some times we have really good talks with people, but its just doesn’t turn into anything. They don’t realize the importance of our message and how very real it is that this church is the only church with the fullness of the gospel. They will talk to us and learn so much, but then just move on. Maybe we are just planting the seeds with those people though. As they come in contact with the church more, they'll start to recognize it.

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty normal. We had several lessons, did some street contacting and door knocking. It is getting colder out and darker sooner. We picked up some new investigators. One is a lady named Sujanna from Nepal. She is so cool! She doesn’t know a whole lot about Christianity, but is learning quickly and had a baptismal date already. We just realized that weekend is stake conference so we are going to push her baptism back a week. We still have a LOT to teach her before she is actually ready for baptism, but we have been asked to be more upfront with our purpose and commit people to be baptized in the first couple visits. We meet SO many people in London and need to sort through them to find the ones that are true investigators.

Friday was amazing! We had Temple Conference in the visitor’s center that is by the London Temple. They just rebuilt it and it is such a blessing to have. I was really impressed. I took having a visitor’s center for granted back home. It is such a useful tool and you can learn so much there. I wish it was closer to my area or even in it so I could go more often and take investigators. Maybe I’ll serve there before the end of my mission. We got to go through the temple as well. It was amazing to see so many missionaries in one session. The spirit was so powerful. I love that temple. We had a good conference as well. President and Sister Swinton did most of the speaking. They are truly amazing I am so grateful to have them as my mission President and Wife. We get to here some pretty cool stories from Sister Swinton about President Monson because she is writing his biography. She spends 6 hours a day doing it and gets to talk to him on a daily basis.

Saturday was a miracle day. We taught 2 new families, picking them all up as new investigators! Sunday was good as well. I was disappointed at how few of our investigators should up for church, but it all went well and we will just keep working on them.

I don’t know what I want for Christmas... sorry. Surprise me. Maybe a cheap quad. Lots of snacks (cheez-its) Oh and tell Jenny she is amazing for sending that package of letters! I am totally out of time.

I love you all take care!

Love Elder Kade Karges

October 13, 2008

Wow it sounds like things are going amazing back in good ol AZ. I miss it. The weather here for the past couple days reminded me of it because for some reason it got warm again, but I know that won’t last long. It looks like its going to rain a lot today and everyone keeps telling me how cold and rainy it gets... I’ll manage though. I definitely need more winter clothing, but I’ll need it before Christmas. I’ll have to buy it here, possibly today. I’m going to buy a better jacket for keeping warm. Right now I just have one rain coat. I’m going to buy a sweater too. I’ll need them soon. My new companion is really cool. I like him a lot. He comes from a small town and has a bit of a small town accent. He hunted a lot back home and did other out door activities. We get along well and are learning tons from each other. Both of us are pretty young so we are learning at the same time. I feel confident though and I’m not worried. The Lord will provide a way for us to do it all. He has the extra pressure of being District Leader too. I loved Elder Warner and miss him too. He was an amazing trainer. He called me last night to see how things were going and just ask about our investigators. He told my companion to take care of his boy. In the mission they call your trainer your dad or father, making me his son or his boy. I’m his "first born son" haha. But then his trainer (Elder McConkie- the apostle is his literal grandpa I believe) is my Grandpa and my Great Grandpa (Elder Sean Gardner -there were two Elder Gardners) Just went back home to Orem this moves. Elder Gardner was also my zone leader. He had a glass eye too which was pretty crazy. He got in an accident a few years back and lost one. I have a good lineage though and look forward to making my ancestor proud ;) As of the other lingo I use. White wash means opening a new area or putting two new people in an area they have never been in. Elder Warner and his companion both came from other places to Oxford. There was already a companionship there, but they are a brand new one. Footie is just short for football (soccer back in the states) and that is what we have been playing some mornings and on p-days. The flat is just our house. A flat here is usually a room that a person rents kind of like an apartment, but because there are so many people and it is expensive a lot of times it’s just a room. Flat has become a term used to just refer to where ever you live. Technically ours is a house, but it is more like a large apartment or condo back home.

That was so cool that you had a couple days off Mom. The family sounds so good. I am so proud of everyone. Tell Chris Baker I said hi if you see him. I get emails from Katie’s Blog and the one that came this time I think had a video, but the comp wont let me see it. Oh well. I really enjoy their pictures though. I can see the kids growing up. My invetigators.... are doing okay in general. We have a problem with Keisha. She hasn’t talked to us in a couple days. Last time we talked everything was still ok. Her testimony of prophets was a little shaky, but the problem was that a friend had said he was bringing her a video about the Mormons for her to watch. We tried to discourage it, but she probably watched it and it was probably anti stuff. We are going to try to get back in contact with her, but for now her date for baptism is dropped. We are seeing Andrew and Stacia today so we will see how they are doing. We have several other investigators. We are hoping to give a girl named Nelicia a baptismal date this week. She is really cool and solid.

Overall last week was great! I really did enjoy it. It seemed so fast. It has been interesting having to run the area on our own. We are doing well though. I was a little worried at first because London is a big and busy place, but we've actually done quite well with the buses and knowing where to go. I’m looking forward to this week. We get to go to the temple this Friday for temple conference!! It’s going to be sweet. We are going sight seeing today. I will get to see big Ben and a few other cool things along the River. I’ll take pictures and send them.

Kevin. I think they have most of the same holidays over here. Probably not Thanksgiving :( I think Greg is doing great on his mission. (He was in Bolivia and was moved to Peru.) I’ve heard from him a couple times. I haven’t heard from Brit. Have you heard anything about him? Thanks for telling me about my friends too. I don’t hear from them. Tell Beau to keep up the good work and get them papers in. It is so worth it! I love missionary work man. I can’t wait to hear where he is going.

Thank you for your love and prayers. I know they are helping. I Pray for you all everyday as well. I hope they are helping. I love you all and can’t wait to talk to you next Monday

Love Elder Karges!

A couple of random P-day pics.

A piece of cement in line with where time starts.

October 9, 2008

Hey everyone!

Man this week has gone by so fast! So much had happened. Everything is great though! I can’t believe I have been out for 2 months already! I guess I should explain why I’m writing a day late. I don’t know if I told you last week, but today is moves day which happens every six weeks. That is when I could get moved to a different area. The good new is that I’m still in Catford, the bad news is that Elder Warner is gone, as well as Elder Martin. The other good news is that my new companion is Elder Christiansen! He is from Delta UT. Elder Sorbonne's new companion (the other new missionary in our flat) is Elder Coombs and he is from Sandy UT. I just asked him if he knew the Erbes and he said no... and my PDay will be Monday from now on.

Elder Christiansen has been out for one moves more than me so 3 months and is the new District Leader! So that makes me a DLB (district leader boy). Some missionaries would say that I am being followed up trained right now, but I’m done with training really. I will technically still be a greeny until I leave my Greeny area though. Elder Coombs has been out for two moves more than me so 4.5 months. That is still pretty new and he is the oldest one in our flat and area! We have a really young group.

I try to send as many pictures as I can. but the computer is really slow at loading them. It takes a lot of email time if I do too many.

Conference weekend was amazing. Conference has never meant so much to me before. I took notes on everything I could and it still wasn’t enough. There were so many great speakers and dad I loved that Documentary on President Monson too. Our schedule was pretty weird because of the time difference. We had to travel to the Wandsworth stake center to watch the broadcast. Saturday night we got to watch Sat Morning Session live, and the rest we watched Sunday. Sunday morning we watched Priesthood and then 2 hours later we watched Saturday night session and then in the evening we watched the Sunday morning session. Somewhere in between we watched the President Monson video. We didn’t get to see the Sunday night session :( it would have gone until almost midnight here. We might get to see it later. Man conference was amazing though. I am so grateful to have a living prophet and Apostles on the earth today. The main themes I noticed were missionary work and building Zion. It seemed like they were a lot more serious about being prepared for the second coming soon.

Our investigators are doing pretty good. Keisha has a baptismal date for the 19th now! She is so ready for it too. She is excited. We had to push it back because she couldn’t go to conference and needs to come to church again. Thank you for your prayers. I love you all. Take care.

Love
Elder Karges

This is Elder Warner and I on our last day in Catford. We are on the Catford High Street with the Catford Cat above us.

This is my District... or used to be. In the back it is elder Martin, Elder McFee, Elder Poulsen (District Leader), and Elder Barker (Zone Leader). In the front it is Elder Gardner (Zone Leader that actually goes home tomorrow Oct 10th), Me and Elder Warner.

October 1, 2008

Hey guys!

This week is going great. Thanks you for those two letters mom! I got them both yesterday. It was a great surprise! It’s easier to find time to read letters. I love them and I love the emails too.

That sounds like quite an exciting Sunday, haha. (We were helping with the Primary Program.) I’m glad you all survived. Mine was good. No investigators showed up... it’s really disappointing when that happens. A few had committed to come, but as Elder Kopischke told us, the only limit to what our faith can do is the agency of others. It was a good meeting though. It was a missionary homecoming, maybe we will be able to get him out on some teaches with us. They had a big lunch thing after too, for the whole ward! It was awesome. I love free food.
Ill try to tell about my week real quick.
Thursday was zone meeting. It went really well. I love President and Sister Swinton. I had my first President’s interview which went well. It was really quick. I hear that short interviews are a good thing :) haha. That took up all day. We saw Andrew and Stacia that night and a couple of times since them. They have been getting taught since before I got here. Pray that they will find a place to move out to and that they will get married soon. They have a little 15 month old boy named Ramario. He is the coolest little kid.
Friday we had half of a normal day and the other half we had an exchange with the AP's. They are cool and I know why they are the President’s Assistants. They are such good missionaries! I learned a lot from them.
Saturday we had grounds day so we cleaned up the church in the morning. Service is a good way to start out your day. We did some knocking and had a DA with a Jamaican member name Elizabeth. She is an amazing cook! We also taught a 22 year old named Zack. It went well, but he is worried he ca’t come to church because his whole family goes to some weird celestial Church of God or something. It is scary to see the things that the Adversary has come up with to lead people astray.
Sunday was that church meeting I talked about and a couple of teaches. One was a family who had a friend over from their church who was actually from the US Air Force. It was cool to hear an American accent. I don’t know what to think of that teach. They are from a church that is way to close to ours to be a coincidence. I don’t know the name, but they claim to have an apostle and have a few temples. They would be such a solid family in the gospel. I hope we can help them.
Monday was normal. We taught a lady named Kiesha who has been around for a long time. Some of the ward even thought she was a member. Pray for her that she won’t be afraid and will want to be baptized SOON. She has dyslexia so pray that that will get better as she reads the Book of Mormon too. Thanks!
Tuesday (PDay-eve) was normal too. One potential investigator led us on a wild goose chase all morning and we didn’t even teach her. It was frustrating, but the rest of the day was good. We saw Stacia and Andrew, and Kiesha again. We are trying to see Kiesha everyday. We tried to plan a date with her, but she backed out. She thinks she isn’t ready, but she really is. She is just afraid. We are trying to prepare her for the 12th. I hope it happens.
Today is Pday of course and it is going well. We got some cleaning done and I got a hair cut.
I don’t know what I want for Christmas yet. ( I had asked him to think about it.) I forgot to think about it during the week. Lots of cheezits and american candy for sure. Ill keep thinking.

Keep up the good missionary work everyone! I love you guys. It is good to hear that you are doing well. Have an amazing week!

Love,
Elder Karges