December 30, 2008

Hello everyone!

I got MOVED!! I have officially left my greeny area and am now serving in the Portsmouth area. Before I forget, I’ll give my new address.

#70 Oriel Rd
Northend, Portsmouth
PO2 9EQ

England

It’s a lot shorter than the last one haha. I haven't seen much of the area yet, but it is a lot different than London. It is right along the southern coast, bordering the channel. My new companion is Elder Orme from Idaho Falls, Idaho. He seems really cool so far. I've only known him for about 2 hours, but I can tell he is a good missionary. He is the youngest of four boys and... I don't know much more. He seems like a smart and organized guy. I'll get to know him over this week and tell you more next time.

It hasn't been long since I talked to you on the phone. I really enjoyed that. You had really good questions. I was glad you had a lot, it’s what I expected. By the way did you record it? I thought I remembered doing that when Kyle called.

The day after Christmas (back in Catford) we picked up a new investigator named Morillo. He is from Brazil and speaks Portuguese and a little bit of English. The lesson went really well because we took the new Portuguese member that got baptized two Sundays ago. We saw him again yesterday (Dec. 29th) and taught him The Plan of Salvation using cards that you can lay out on the table. He loved it and long story short, he has a baptismal date for the 25 of January. I'm excited for him and look forward to hearing about his baptism. We picked up a few new investigators during the rest of the week, but now I'm in a different area. I don't know any of my new investigators yet, but I look forward to meeting them.

Travel went well. Elder Christensen is training now, so a brand new Scottish Elder took my place in Catford. They will do a great job. I went to the temple (where the mission home is) with him to pick up his new comp and to meet up with some Elders I would travel to my new area with. A lot of missionaries were around so we did a lot of talking and then some elders went to the visitors' center to watch the Joseph Smith video with a new member. I was waiting on them for my ride, so I went with my old Zone Leader, Elder King, to take people to the train station. On my way back I had my first driving experience in England!! It was pretty fun especially since it was a manual car. I have only driven a manual car once back home, and this time it was backwards!! haha. I did pretty well though and now have some encouragement to get my drivers license over here. One of my new Zone Leaders is named Elder Armstrong and is from Mesa. He went to Red Mountain. I talked to another Elder at the temple named Elder Barnwell who is from Mesa too. He went to Westwood. I actually met Elder Barnwell before my mission at ASU. He found out we got called to the same place and introduced himself at institute. I think I asked a long time ago, but I was wondering if Kyle ever served with or met an Elder Cusick while in Venezuela. There is one here, that is an AP now, who has an older brother that served there around the same time.

That’s about all I can think of to write about right now. I hope you all have an amazing week and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I love you.

Love
Elder Kade Karges

December 22nd

Dear Family,

Merry Christmas!!! It is good to hear that everything is well back home. We did sing at the Ward Christmas Party on Friday haha. It was just the four of us and we didn’t sound half bad. That is the second time I've done that on my mission now. Three other Elders and I sang on a Sunday in the MTC as well.

That was so nice of Sister Edwards to Email you. We were at their house for a DA and they decided to show us the video of the Angel Moroni being put on top of the temple. Elder Christensen asked to have it sent to his mom, so I did too. They are a good family. They are funny and very active. They are probably in their forties and have at least 3, maybe up to 5, children (13, 16, older). They served us a proper English meal. Potatoes, pea's, roast chicken, and Yorkshire pudding with gravy. It was good. It was one of my first English meals actually. We eat a lot of foods from other places

The rest of the week went well. I usually have my planner with me so I can remember the highlights, but I left it at the flat this time. The other two missionaries in Catford had a double baptism on Sunday morning. We have taught their investigators a couple of times so it was really cool to be a part of it. One was a Brazilian guy named Pedro, and the other is a Jamaican lady named Trudly-Ann. We had a white Christmas in London after all

I got the DeSpain’s package. Tell them thank you, thank you, thank you!!! And if I haven’t told you already,I got both of yours. The 12 days of Christmas have been great! I opened the boxing pens today haha I love you and thanks again.

I am holding Nesquick chocolate milk in my hand in the picture I just sent. Most of the pictures I have been sending come from other peoples cameras. I transfer them to my memory card. I’m still working on getting my own camera. The picture with the hat – it’s the hat you sent. I wore it around all day today. I took the picture with my camera, I just cant see what I’m taking the picture off. The screen doesn’t work, but I can guess where I am aiming and snap a picture to look at later

I just remembered that somebody asked if I had a certain English teacher at Hendrix Jr. High. I think I did have the teacher they mentioned and that’s cool to know she is using my papers as examples

We have all been getting sick lately. It hasn't hit me hard yet and hopefully it won't, but I definitely have a cold. Elder Call was down for a day or two and Elder Christensen was sick, but we only stayed in for half a day (I used the time to write a couple of last minute Christmas cards, I hope they get there in time). Everyone is gradually getting better. It has been affecting our investigators too. We went into this week and the next one hoping things would pick up because people would have more time, but kind of the opposite happened. People have been either sick or on holiday (vacation as we call it back home).

We are still working hard and enjoying the work. We hit a new record of finding this week for me. 29 hours!! The usual has been about 17 for me. It seemed to go by so fast though because we are having fun doing it. I am grateful for this Christmas season and feel very blessed. The ward has taken good care of us. We have dinner appointments lined up on either side of Christmas and possibly on Christmas Day. They have given quite a few cards and things as well. The biggest blessing I think is being a member of our family. I love you all so much and am so grateful for your support. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and I look forward to speaking to you on the phone!

Love Elder Karges
Ward members and the missionaries after church this Sunday. Joseph (recent RM: served in Ireland), me, Elder Christensen, Sam (Deaf member of the ward), Alex (18 year old ward mission leader), Elder Call, Elder Sorbonne

Our zone pday earlier today. We played sports and had a white elephant gift exchange in Wandsorth. People are holding their gifts.

December 15, 2008

Hellooo!!

First off I’ll just answer some questions before I forget. I got both packages and I have been opening the 12 days of Christmas. Thank you so much! I’m still working on the camera situation. Ill try to work on it today. I’ll let you know if I need help. I have a Conference edition Ensign already. Thank you for checking. I haven't got to read it much, but I will. The weather here is cold, windy, and rainy, but I’m doing alright. It’s a big change form good old AZ, but I worked into it gradually. I don’t really use my umbrella haha it’s kind of pointless sometimes with the wind. Even though it gets cold, it helps to know that at the end of the day I can go back to a warm flat. If we are in doors, it really isn’t bad at all. I actually get hot in the flat and have to open the windows. We sleep with a window open at night if that helps picture how it is. It doesn’t rain hard, but it rains a lot and for a long time. Everything gets wet so I’ve been putting stuff in plastic bags and then into my back pack... things still get ruined sometimes. From what I hear it’s been snowing everywhere else in England, but not so much here. I haven’t seen any since that Sunday morning a while ago and that wasn’t very much.

I love hearing about the family every week. It’s amazing how good it is to hear from everyone and just know that things are going well back home. I’m excited to talk to you all on Christmas. It is still hard for me to believe that I’m already making my first out of four calls home. This week has been great. People are happier and nicer during Christmas which is nice. It doesn’t mean they are more willing to accept the gospel, but it’s possible and I like to think it does. Each part of London (ie Lewisham) has a council that runs things around the city. They put up Christmas light on a lot of the light posts around and even set up Christmas trees. The sidewalks here are different. They are just stone or brick laid on the ground, so they simply take out a few and put the tree straight in the ground! It’s pretty cool. I don’t know a whole lot of the local traditions. Ill let you know if I eat anything cool or ethnic. I heard that the ward has a pretty big celebration and a lot of old members come to visit. I’m looking forward to that.

This week went by fairly fast. I spent two days on exchanges with Crystal Palace and we had a lot of appointments. Things had slowed down for a while, but now they are picking back up. We have 8 investigators right now so it’s kinda hard to talk about all of them. They will most likely change by next week anyways haha, but you can know that they are doing well. One speaks French and another one Spanish. It’s pretty fun. I’m remembering a lot of what I learned in school. The work is going great and I love you guys. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

in African Traditionals without holding them back. This is how they are supposed to be worn, but this one was way to big for me haha.

Dec. 8, 2008

Elder Christensen and I eating pumpkin pie the Pday after Thanksgiving

Hey,

This week has been really fast, I don’t know where all the time has gone. We are still working hard and having fun doing it. Not much has changed with our investigators, except that they are always changing haha. That’s just how it is though. There are millions of people here and thousands are ready to be baptized, we just have to find them. We have done a lot of finding (knocking and street contacting) lately and I’m looking forward to seeing the blessings and miracles that will hopefully come.

Last P-day we had a good time just hanging out at our flat with the Elders from Crystal Palace. We had a little Thanksgiving Celebration with pumpkin pie and everything! We made a make-shift grill out of our stove and oven rack and it worked pretty dang well. It was one of the best ideas we have ever had :)

Tuesday was Zone Meeting. They had Zone conference and meeting really early this moves. Hopefully the rest of moves doesn’t drag on because of it. I always love going to these meetings because President and Sister Swinton are amazing and always bring the spirit so strongly.

Wednesday and Friday were very similar. We went on exchanges both days with the other Catford Elders. Wednesday I was with Elder Sorbonne and Friday with Elder Call. Exchanges are always fun and miracles always come from them. They make the week fly by as well. I think we are having three next week! Wed through Fri with the Crystal Palace Elders and The Zone Leaders. I’m looking forward to that.

Thursday and Saturday were pretty normal, good days. We taught a few people and met a lot of new ones. We didn’t get to see our baptismal date, Timothy, like we had planned, because he has been working like crazy. I hope we do soon because we have a lot to teach him before he can be baptized. Saturday we also got a disappointing call from Elizabeth, the Nigerian member that is always feeding us and bringing people to church. She is moving!!! :( We are going to miss her a lot, and her cooking. We went over to her house that night and gave her a blessing because she had recently gone to the hospital for a few days with a really high fever. She is doing better now.

We never know what Sunday is going to be like... the ward here can be pretty exciting at times, and interesting at others. Everything is mostly the same as back home just a little less organized I guess. I don’t know how to explain it. I love it and love the members. They are all very nice, there are just some peculiar characters.

I hope I answered any questions that you all had. Let me know if I didn’t. I love you all and hope you have an amazing week.

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

my zone this moves at the bumper cars near the London Eye

December 1, 2008

Hiya!!

A lot people say hello that way over here. That or they abbreviate 'are you alright' and say 'yaright' as they walk by. This week has gone well. It seemed a little slower than past weeks because nothing too exciting happened. We dropped a lot of investigators and did a lot of finding. I’m excited to pick some new investigators up this week though and see how many get baptized by the end of the year!

We have been teaching a guy named Jeff that works as the head baker at a bakery called Percy Ingles. He is really cool and loves the new things he is learning from the Book of Mormon. He comes from a pretty stout Catholic family and doesn’t know how to tell his wife he is meeting with us - haha. We asked him if they knew about it and knew that he reads the Book of Mormon and he said it never leaves his bag when he gets home... his wife saw it once and he said it was nothing and put it away quickly. It’s pretty funny, but I hope he lets them know soon so the gospel can bless his whole family. Once he does, we will refer him to the boarding area (Peckham) because that’s where he actually lives. We had a couple really good teaches with him this week.

We had a 16-year-old named Ricardo Graham we were teaching and who was getting ready for baptism, but we haven’t seen him lately. It could be a parental thing. Hopefully we'll see him soon, but his baptism is postponed for now.

Our only other main investigator is Timothy who is from Nigeria. He came to church and liked it and we will be meeting him a lot now. He is really cool, but hard to read because he doesn’t get real excited or show a lot of emotion about it. He keeps commitments and wants to know the truth so I know he'll find it.

Monday we went back up towards the Eye and Big Ben again. We did bumper cars with the whole zone, it was cool. I’m sending a couple pictures I snagged from Elder Christensen’s camera.

Not much else happened this week, except another one of our investigators invited us over for a celebration. It was pretty fun, but we didn’t stay long.(oh and they don’t really celebrate Thanksgiving over here, but the ward knows we do and they try to help us celebrate with Dinner Appointments. For PDay today we are having a little get together of missionaries, as well.)

I’m out of time now. I love you guys! Take care and enjoy the Christmas Season!!!

The first one is of me and Elder Sorbonne at Big Ben. Elder Sorbonne has been with me my whole mission so far its pretty crazy!

Elder Christensen and I in a bumber car near the London Eye