The Best Christmas Gift This Year

Elder Karges called home on Christmas morning.  It was the most anticipated and joyful present the Karges family received this year!  We really, really, really look forward to talking with him.  We all arrived in plenty of time to start the call.  The whole family was gathered around the piano bench with the phone perched on top.

Dad dialed.  It went through the very first time, Yes!  An elder answered the phone, took us a minute to decode his "english"  but he basically said Elder Karges wasn't there....hmmmm.  What?  He's out doing real missionary work?  Okay we'll cut him a break.  We said we'd call back in 10 minutes.  We actually called back in 15, and the wait was totally worth it.

A few highlights of the conversation:

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  He's still preparing for his English driver's test.  Scheduling it is crazy because the appointments are made 5 or 6 weeks out and transfers come up every 6 weeks.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Jenny got to say hi to her best friend growing up, Elder Greeley, because he and Elder Karges are in two different companionships sharing a flat. We are excited they are together!
  
  
  
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  He is sleeping in the front room of his flat ("english" word for apartment) because mold has taken over his room....gross...guess it's a continual problem there.  Sounds like the bathroom isn't any better.  Aparently they just get in and out as quickly as they can.
  
  
  
• 
  
  He and his companions actually leave the mission about once a week right now. Say What? Yes. They got permission to cut across a corner of the London North Mission (I think) to cut way down on their travel time driving within their zone.
  
  
  
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  He has had some interesting food over there in England. He likes the traditional English roast dinner…apparently they roast their potatoes and there is lots of gravy involved…or was that a different meal? He’s had lots of ethnic foods because he teaches a lot of immigrants. And he’s had Mexican food once or twice. Oh yeah, and apparently he had to go all the way to England to discover his love for pasta…I thought you went to Italy for that?
  
  
  

We may have spoken a little longer than we had first planned, ahem, but it was the BEST part of Christmas.  At the very end Elder Karges and Elder Greely sang us "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" - the girls were tearing up - The whole family sang it back - even the kids, even Dad! 

 

We Love YOU Elder Karges!  We hope you had a VERY merry Christmas!

December 21, 2009

Elder B and I with Elders Carr and Bien trying to take a proper Christmas picture as we ended our exchange in Slough.

Merry Christmas!!!!

This week as been amazing!   We have had a lot of miracles and YES we got snow! Of course that means its cold, but I've never lived around snow really so it’s been exciting. The morning it snowed we ran straight outside and made a small snowman. Someone destroyed it before we left the flat again at 10, but it was worth while.

The miracles we have seen include a man named Parry who called us and asked to be baptized. Apparently he was taught once in October and received a Book of Mormon. Since then he has read it and gained a testimony that it is true. Another miracle was when we taught Craig and Balinda the word of wisdom and chastity and before we came back for the next teach, they had come up with there own goals and plans of how to keep the commandments. They are preparing to be baptized with Balinda's daughter, Mary Jane, on January 2nd. They are amazing! The other miracle I'll share today is about Tsana. I mentioned Pearly's family before (thanks for praying for William, her husband... his heart really needs to be softened) which is how we met her. She was there for just one lesson, then we taught her the plan of Salvation, ending with an explanation of temple marriages. She had been pretty against everything until she heard the last part and then said, "that makes sense".... She came to the temple on Saturday and saw the Joseph Smith film, went home not planning to go to church, but showed up in the morning, and Sunday evening she texted us sharing her testimony of Joseph Smith after doing her own historical research.

I wish I had more time to write more people and thank you for all your prayers and for all that you do. I know it is helping because that is why I have so little time! Missionary work is busy but I love it! I am excited to talk to you at Christmas and hope your week goes well. I hope everyone has an amazing Christmas. I love you!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

Me and the snowman Elder B and i made at 6:30am (for our 1/2 hour of exercise). It only snowed for one night, but we got a couple inches :)

December 14, 2009

God Jul! (Danish for Good Christmas)

This week started out with several miracles which came in the form of 4 new baptismal dates. We found a really cool family recently, actually two! One isn't preparing for baptism yet, but the son, Wesley, is best friends with Bishop Price's son, John. We met the mother, Pearly on the street and made the connection later in the teaching process. John just turned 16 last week and has already been out teaching with us to his friend. The father of the family seems a bit apprehensive, so pray for him, William. The other family is a South African mom with a few kids and her English boyfriend. They are preparing to get baptized on January 3rd. Pray that they'll find ways to live the commandments. We have one other baptismal date right now (Paola and Shantal dropped :( ) who is trying to quit smoking. His name is Zack and he's from Nigeria. Like always we are teaching many other people right now, but these are our focus right now.

Things are going great with the ward. The new ward mission leader, Brother Knight, is amazing. He is really making things happen and has a great vision of what the ward can do. Since he just got released from the stake Presidency, he and is wife are just returning to regular attendance at their home ward. Sister Knight has made a new dinner list for us and we have quite a few members we will be going to soon. I am looking forward to that so I can get more integrated into the ward.

I do know Elder Armstrong! haha I'll try to send a picture of us together. He was My Zone Leader when I was in Portsmouth. He was an amazing missionary, I look up to him. It’s pretty cool that his uncle is in our ward. If you talk to his family, pass on to him that I said hello.

The only other thingI can think of to share is that I went on exchange this week to Aldershot. I worked with Elder Christensen's 'boy' Elder Obike. He is from Scottland. It was a really cool exchange.

I hope all the Christmas preparations are going well. I love you all and look forward to talking to you!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

December 7, 2009

Feliz Navidad!

It’s been a full week since my last email, but it doesn't feel like it. I am starting to get to know things around our area. The members are really good to us and the ward functions well. We just got a new ward mission leader actually. The old one moved out on my first Saturday here, but the new one just got released from the stake presidency so he should be great.

Investigator wise, we are doing pretty well. When I first got here we had two preparing for baptism, but since then we found out Shantal is probably moving back to Leeds on Tuesday and Paola hasn't been to church since I came. Paola could still be baptized this Sunday, but it might be the next to give her another opportunity to attend. (The ward here has asked us to have baptisms on Sundays, after church. I'm not sure how long that will last because that means they have to wait until the next Sunday to be confirmed in a sacrament meeting.) Although they are struggling a bit we have seen some miracles with new families and other investigators. We have met two separate South African mothers that have a couple kids each. One of them has a son that is actually best friends with our bishop's son. We are excited for both families and for a guy named Courtney. He is actually Shantal's brother-in-law and just came to church for the first time. When any of them progress a little more I'll fill you in on what’s happening.

I have to get off the computer for a while, but I might be able to get back on later. I love you!

Love
Elder Kade Karges
 

Sorry we have had a good, but busy P Day. I thought I would be able to get back on for longer, but we only got to just pop by the library. I met Elder Bang’s mother  this week. She came to bring him his Christmas package. She works for Scandinavian Airlines and could bring it over as luggage cheaper than sending it. Elder Greeley and I were on exchange when it happened so we were able to pick it up for him without him seeing his mum. She is really cool and it was cool to work with Elder Greeley for a whole day. He is a good Missionary. Oh and we (the four of us) have sang twice in the past week for different occasions. Once at Zone Conference for our Christmas Program and once at a baptism. I feel the spirit really strongly when I sing so I really enjoyed it.

I still love you!

Elder Kade Karges

November 30, 2009

Hello again,

It’s only been a few days, so not a whole lot has changed. I am excited to be hear in Staines, but like going to any new area for the first time, it takes time to get used to. I think things are going well. Staines is a bigger zone than Crawley was and we have some really great missionaries.

Before I forget, yes I got both packages and I will begin opening them tomorrow! And I apologize for forgetting my new address last week, but thank you for updating it.

The flat I am in now is... ok.  The last flat actually got a lot better when we got some portable space heaters. This flat is warm and really is quite good, but we found some mold when we moved some furniture today. Apparently it’s been a problem in the flat for a long time, we just need to stay on top of it and clean!

I heard from Elder Christensen that Valerijus got baptized over the weekend! I was really excited to hear that. He is going to grow quickly in the gospel. We have two baptismal dates here named Paula and Shantal. Paula is really cool and is from Portugal I believe, and Shantal is from Jamaica.

Serving in London is a lot different than anywhere else in the mission. The people are different and the wards are still true, but different ha-ha. I am excited to get to know things better so I can be more effective.

I’m sure I'll have more to share with you next week, but I love you and will continue to pray for you.

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

The call came yesterday morning that I was leaving Crawley :/ so last night I packed, this morning I went to the mission office, and now I am emailing you from my new area :) Staines! Staines is on the South west of London and is actually in Surrey, but we live in a place called Hounslow which is IN London. I haven’t been here long, but it is cool to be back in London. Technically we actually live north of the Thames River because it dips south a bit.

I was sad to find out that I was leaving Crawley. I really liked it there and looked forward to serving with Elder Christensen another moves. As the mission rules go we aren't supposed to call around or stop by anyone, but I was able to say goodbye to quite a few people in appointments and just doing our daily things.

I think I am more excited to see how things go in my new area than I was sad to leave my last. My new companion is Elder "Bong" (it’s actually spelled Bang with a little circle over the 'a'). He is from Denmark and has been out a little bit shorter than me. He has been to the states a lot and speaks great English. My first time meeting him, a few months ago, I actually thought he was British or American.

Our area has two companionships and we live in the same flat, so it’s a lot like Catford! And guess who is in the other companionship... Elder Greeley!!! He is actually one of our district leaders so we'll be accounting with him in person instead of over the phone. His companion is Elder Fielder who is from Wales and he came out at the same time as Elder Carlson, the missionary I trained. I am excited to serve around both of them.

That’s about all I know about my area right now, except that the missionaries consider it India. Just walking down the street I have noticed that about 80% of the people aren’t English. Most of them are either Hindu, Muslim, or Sikh.

In Crawley we had a lot of investigators preparing for baptism. I will try to keep you posted when they happen.

>Valerijus (from Lithuania) for this Saturday, Nov. 28th
>Raul, Leticia, and Neptune (11) Boongaling (a Philipino
family) for Dec. 12th
>Joanna "Asha" (from Poland) for Dec. 12th
>Serge, Dorella, and Chelsea Permal (from Mauritius) for
Dec. 19th

There are a few other people really close, but we have to wait for other things to clear up before we can give them a date.

I don't know the investigators here, in Staines, very well, but I know we have two preparing for baptism and will tell you more about them on Monday!

I Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

November 16, 2009

Hello again,

Sorry about the short email last week. I didn't manage my time on the computer well enough and barely got it sent off with what it had before it logged out! Next week is moves so I won't be able to email until Thursday. By then I will have taken my driving test on the 25th, so pray for me!

This week like most others has definitely gone by quickly. We had a really successful week. Sometimes we find a lot of new investigators or have a couple more members on teaches, but this week everything went up together, including people preparing for baptism! We have a couple families we are working with and a Lithuanian man named Valerijus. Valerijus was supposed to get baptized on the 21st, but will have to wait. The simple reason is for work, but we also think he is scared to pray. He has realized the significance of the fact that if the Church is true, no others are. Because he likes other faiths and comes from an orthodox back ground he isn't sure if he wants it to be true. He just went to the Temple yesterday, but is still undecided. We recommitted him to pray about it last night.

There is a Philipino family that now has a date for the 12th of Dec. Raul and Leticia are the parents and Neptune is their 11 year old son. The other family is from Mauritius. The father's name is Serge, and his daughter, Dorella, and granddaughter, Chelsea, are preparing for the 19th of Dec. We are hoping to commit Serge's wife, Mariolane as well.

We are working with another family I might have mentioned before, but I don't think I told the whole story. It is a huge miracle that I hope I have time to explain! Another Elder named Elder Binks served here a year ago and is currently the Assistant to the President. When he was serving here before, he had felt prompted to just say hello to a 12 year old girl (Janet) on the street. She turned around and said "Hey I think I am Mormon, but I haven't been baptized.") They found out that her mother (Coralia) had joined the church when she was twenty and even served a mission in Portugal (where she is actually from). When she got off her mission she had married a recent convert (Janet's father), but he had soon fallen away and had even forbid them from going to church. Elder Binks and his companion attempted to teach the family, but the father wouldn't allow it. Two P-Days ago we invited Elder Binks and Roberts to play basketball with us and Valerijus. Before they met us at the church they went to the town center, where (1 year later) they met Coralia again! What made it even more of a miracle is that Elder Binks had just finished telling his companion the story of meeting Janet on the street. Coralia was excited to see him and told him that she was now separated from her husband and would like us to come around again. When they finally made it to the church, they explained everything to us and that night we went to see her.

When we met her that night, she was very happy to see us and we taught her and Janet right away. We found out that they had attended church for some time in Brighton about 5 years ago, but when Janet and her brother (Jonathan-16) had attempted to get baptized, their father had put the brakes on the whole thing. I don't know much about the father except that he has gone pretty anti and is even preparing to be a priest of some other church. Over the last two weeks we have taught them all several times and both kids have been to youth. They have been to church as well and want to be baptized, but until there is a legal separation agreement they can't be. Until then we will continue to visit and hopefully things will happen quickly.

Well I hope you all have another amazing week! Tell everyone in the 12th ward area I said hello and especially congratulate Noor for me. I love you all and pray for you all the time!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

November 9, 2009

Hello,

This week has been a really good and new experience. On Tuesday we were able to go through a temple session before district meeting. President said we won't be able to do it every time, but we were grateful for the permission this once. We have been trying to think about what is best to do for the zone and it helped a lot to go there and feel the spirit.

The way that President does interviews has changed. We no longer have what we call "Zone Meeting." We still have Zone Conference, but the purpose of the other meeting was for interviews and we have received council from the area presidency to do it another way. Our interviews were on Wednesday morning and we traveled to the mission office (on Temple grounds) for it. All of the members of our zone traveled there for their specific interview times and then left the grounds. It is a good way of doing things because we don't lose a whole day of proselyting for zone meeting.

Enough about the boring stuff you probably don’t want to know about though. Today started off with an exciting trip to the Sikh temple! We have been meeting with a Sikh family for a couple weeks and the father has come to church once. They are saying that they don’t wish to change, but we have said several prayers in their home, and their hearts are definitely changing. The parent’s names are Jaspal and Sheena. Jaspal's father is actually the priest of the local temple, so we had a tour today. It was a really cool experience. They have so much truth, but have quite a few things confused.

Sorry I’m out of time! Love you!

Elder Kade Karges

Nov. 2, 2009

Hello!

Things are going well. We have had a lot of new investigators. We have actually been finding a lot of families lately, so they come and go in groups of 4 or 5 at a time. We have a few people that have been sticking around and we are trying to teach their other family members as well.

I may have mentioned some of our investigators before, but right now we have two baptismal dates. One is Juliet (Nov 14th), who has come to church twice, but didn't make it this week. We actually haven't had contact for a couple days. We need to see her more often and meet her husband. The other current date is Valerijus (Nov 21st). He came to church for the third time this week and stayed for the whole block for the first time. He is a really funny Lithuanian guy. We actually played basketball with him last P-Day and are planning to do it again today. He has been bringing some Eastern European friends to church as well, but from all different countries. Two of them, Vladius and his wife, Vlada, we hope to give a baptismal date soon.

There is a Mauritian family we are working with as well. Serge (the father) and Dorella (the daughter) had baptismal dates for the fourteenth, but they haven't come to church yet, so that won’t be possible. We will see them soon and reset a date, hopefully including the mother, Mariolane, and granddaughter, Chelsea.

The zone is doing well, and so is the mission. A lot of changes have happened lately and we are starting to see the effects. Something that has affected me lately was going on a full day exchange with one of the Assistants. They haven't had their own area in the past, but have been given one and are trying to make it work. They are often busy at the office or helping President Shamo. It was a pretty abnormal day for me being at the office so much. The family they live with basically own a mansion though. It really felt like one as I slept there for the night. They own several acres of land on either side of there house as well. We also had an exchange in Brighton which went really well, but their flat wasn't nearly as nice. I guess you can find both ends of the spectrum everywhere you go.

Its starting to get dark, rainy and cold here, but
I hope you enjoy and warm week back home!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges
 

Oct. 26, 2009

Hello!

Wow it sounds like a lot of things are happening back home. It is so good to hear that others are leaving on their missions. I think the greatest news I've received has been that people I know have received their mission calls and are serving the Lord in other parts of the world. Thank you for keeping me posted on how things are going back home.

You are right about President Shamo. I love him and Sister Shamo, they are amazing. The mission is going through quite a few changes and they are all for the better. We are expected not to get as many missionaries either, the moves before and after Christmas aren't expected to have any new missionaries. The church is re-allocating missionaries world wide to places like South America and Africa. Here in the U.K. and in all of Europe they are hoping things will become more self sustaining and not as many American missionaries will be called here.

I got some other really good news over the last two weeks that really made me happy. My first convert, Mary Olatunbosun had moved to Nigeria right after her baptism and we had lost contact. Since then she has moved back to London, in the ward right next to where I served, Welling. The Elders there (including one that served in Catford at the same time as me, Elder Call) found Mary and reactivated her. On top of that, they taught her son who is now baptized and attends church with her! I am sending a picture of the two of them at his baptism. I was so excited to hear that she was doing well. It is a miracle that they found her, and it adds to the miracle that Elder Christensen and I are serving together again right when it happened!

In our area things are going great. We had a baptism on Friday for Ross Nicholson. The service was really good and I know he is going to progress well in the gospel. We have three other people with baptismal dates scheduled. They are parts of families though, so we hope to teach and extend dates to their other family members this week. Serge and Dorella are a father and daughter from Mauritius, and Juliet is from Uganda. All of them plan to be baptized on November 14th.

Elder Christensen and I are really enjoying serving together again. Things are going well and we look forward to even more things happening. The ward is taking care of us fairly well and I feel like I know a lot more of them.

Hope your week is amazing, you are always in my prayers!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

Mary and her son at his baptism. He was baptized in the same chapel as she was because the other ward doesn't have a baptismal font. I think they even took this picture in the same place as the one we took of her!

Mom will be proud of this one. Elder Christensen and I with our brand new crock pot, slow cooker! We have used it twice already and the food turned out amazing!

Bishop and Sister Easter with their family and Ross, at Ross' baptism. Ross is standing in the middle.

Elder Christensen, Ross, and I just before Ross' baptism.

October 19, 2009

Hello again!

It hasn't been long since my last email, so not a whole lot has happened, but things are going great! It’s good to hear that you and Elder Christensen's mom keep in contact. I don't know his family that well, but I can tell he comes from a good one.

Since Thursday we have taught Ross twice. He is doing great and will be ready to be baptized this Friday. We are seeing him twice before then to teach a couple small commandments (like study the scriptures and pray often) and to have his interview. There is a new investigator that we found on Saturday that is preparing to be baptized on Nov 14th. Her name is Juliet and she is from Uganda. She is really cool and said that as she has been going to the University here she has been looking for a church to go to. She came on Sunday and said it is the first church that she has ever been to where someone has given her a hug as soon as she walked in the door, ha-ha. I don’t know who it was, but I’m grateful that the members here are fellowshipping our investigators.

Our goal for the next week is to extend baptismal invitations to two amazing families that we have met. We are really excited for them and are praying that they will accept. We have quite a few meetings this week because it is the first week of the transfer cycle, but we have set our expectations high for what we want to accomplish.

I don’t know when my driving test is, but it probably won’t be for about a month. I got your letter showing the boundaries of the new Chandler Alma Stake. Things have really changed! It sounds like it is for the better though. I got the letter before moves, so Elder Gasparato also got to read the LDS jokes that came with it. Thank you for all that you do and have an amazing week!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

Oct. 15, 2009

Hello Everyone,

So, I'm sure you figured it out, but this was moves week. I know you asked me when it would be, but I kept forgetting to answer it in my emails. I am still in Crawley! I am not with Elder Gasparato anymore though. He is ending his mission in a really cool way. He was released as ZL and will be white wash training for his last transfer. President Shamo is actually planning to release ZL's to train more frequently now. White washing means that he and his greenie will both be new to the area. There won’t be another missionary there that knows his way around. They will learn it as they go!.

My new companion is actually someone you already know because I have served with him before! Its Elder Christensen!!! We served together at the same time last year for two moves (3 months) in Catford. Now we are both Zone Leaders and we'll be serving together here in Crawley. If it’s for another 2 moves, then we will have our second Christmas together. I was really excited when I found out because I loved serving with him. Both of us are a lot more experienced now and we are already good friends so I am really looking forward to the next several weeks.

A lot has been happening in our area. We have picked up and dropped many investigators including 3 baptismal dates. We are definitely finding people to teach, but I guess we need to work on finding the right ones. We are still teaching Ross and he is doing great. We made him a calendar of scriptures to read all the way to his baptism on the 23rd and he has been reading them all. Hopefully he will go with the youth to the temple tonight and we will see him Friday. We really need to see him more often because it’s not that far away.

I still love the area and love the people here. Crawley is really a good place to be. I am getting to know the ward a lot better and really understand who people are. It is a very large ward. I will be rescheduling my driving test sometime in the next few weeks, but I don't know what day yet. As far as I know the guys I mentioned last week never confessed to what happened at the church, but it isn't too big of a deal.

I will be emailing again on Monday, so it won't be long till you hear from me again. It sounds like quite a few of you are going on trips though and I hope they go well. Congratulate Uncle Henry for me. It’s really cool to have him as our bishop!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

Oct. 5, 2009

Hello!

This weekend really was a great experience, well most of it. I really loved conference and got to see most sessions. We actually watched the morning sessions at the same time that you did, but it was 5pm for us. We watched Priesthood at 10am Sunday and Saturday Afternoon Session at 1pm on Sunday. The rule for the night was that as long as we were in bed by 10:30 we could watch as much of conference as we wanted. We live fairly close to the church so on top of the other 6 hours we stayed a little later and watch the first hour of Sunday Afternoon session live at 9pm our time.

We didn't see much of the last hour. Right when it began, we heard a loud crash by the front door and went to check it out. Apparently a pretty drunk man had thrown a hammer at one of the windows. As we turned the corner, we saw the window and watched as the man came back for his hammer and then ran away. We don't think he was trying to break in because he would have tried it around back, and he didn't do much damage because they are double pained doors, but we called the police to see if they would catch him. They came pretty quickly, but didn't catch them right away. They talked to us for a while and we gave them our information just before locking the building and going home. We were back and ready for bed before 10:30, but ended up not being able to go to bed. The police called back and said they had caught two men doing something similar in a nearby neighborhood and had arrested them. They asked us if they could come get a statement from us about the crime and they would see if the man would confess. So, we got dressed and waited outside so the members we live with wouldn't be woken up. We sat in the police car to answer all his questions before finally getting to go to bed. We won’t know what happened with the men for a few days, but it’s likely that nothing will happen because it was dark and we couldn't give a clear description.

My companion, Elder Gasparato, and one of our district leaders, Elder Komulainen (from Finland), are actually on a trip to North London today because they go home next moves. I am still in Crawley with Elder Trevisan (another Italian, the one that knows Elder Sabbah). They were here for the experience last night and will go back to their area tonight. I was supposed to have my driving test this morning and was actually feeling pretty good about it, but it didn't happen. I went to the testing center and was even early, but after waiting a half hour I found out that my examiner never showed up at work. They said the test will have to be rescheduled, so I’ll let you know when I find out when it is.

Investigator wise, things are going ok. We aren’t teaching Kevin anymore, but Ross is doing good, and we found a really cool family we hope to start teaching soon. We met and taught one of the daughters on the street and she was really excited. She wants to be baptized. They are actually from Pakistan, but are completely Christian. We have talked to the parents and hope to teach them all so they can join the church together. There last name is Joseph. We are always working with many others, but these are our best investigators right now.

Overall we really are doing great! I love you guys and hope things are still going well. I pray that everyone is doing well in school and work so I hope you are seeing the blessings. I would love to hear about your favorite talks at conference Elder Gasparato says he misses the LDS jokes you used to send haha. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges
 

September 28, 2009

Hey!

I always want to say good morning or good afternoon, but then I realize that you might all read this at different times, so that wouldn't make sense. Anyway, I hope you are having the best of what ever part of the day you are in! Things are getting colder here, so enjoy the heat while you have it. Our flat doesn't have a heater, so I hear that it is one of the coldest in the winter, but I'll survive. I have my driving test one week from today at 8:30 in the morning, so if you wake up in the middle of the night on Monday, say a prayer for me.

Things really seemed to drag at the end of last week and beginning of this week, but they are looking better now. We have had quite a few exchanges lately like I mentioned in my last letter. We actually planned to have 3 a week, but only had 2. This is the cause for things slowing down, but they encourage us to exchange with everyone in the zone. At least they used to.

Elder Teixeira from the area presidency came for a mission tour and we had another conference for the whole mission on Thursday (right between two exchanges). It was really cool and we learned about a lot of changes that will be happening. Before the conference, we had an extra Zone Leader Council with him and he advised a lot of changes, one of which was to only exchange with District Leaders.... we are happy to follow that counsel. Exchanges are fun, but we've been doing too many. Most of the changes he mentioned have to do with the politics of the mission, so they might not mean a whole lot to you, but I am excited to see them happen. The conference as a whole was really good and really motivating.

Out of our many investigators over the last few weeks, we don't have many left. Some of them we are still keeping contact with, but not really teaching. The main people we are teaching right now are Kevin and Ross. Both of them accepted baptismal dates yesterday for the 10th and the 24th of October. Kevin is the same one that has already had two baptismal dates that haven't gone through, but I think this time it will. Ross is the boyfriend of the bishop’s daughter. She has been bringing him to church for about 2 months and we just started teaching him. He is really cool and sincerely wants to do what is right.

I am grateful for you support and prayers and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

All but one of the Elders from my MTC group.

Elder Wheat, Elder Hooper, Elder Sorbonne, me,

and Elder Allred (in the front). We are missing Elder Tomlinson

Elder Warner (my trainer) and I catching up at conference with Elder Allred in the background.

September 21, 2009

Hey,

Not a whole lot has happened this week. Not even Kevin's baptism. He may still go through with it soon, but he has to make the choice. We should have a baptism this weekend though, His name is Johnson Siatous. His is 11 and is really cool. We almost ran into a problem with his father not wanting him to be baptized, but we talked to his father with his recent convert sister there and I think things are alright. The only other concern he has is that he wants to play football on Sundays.

A lot of the new people we found over the last few weeks are already dropped, but some of the families are just hard to meet with. Hopefully we will get better at working with whole families and see them all again soon.

We had a lot of exchanges and other things this week that took some time away from our area, but i hope next week will be more focused. It doesn't look like it though. We have two more exchanges and a mission wide conference with Elder Texeira. He is in the area presidency.

Thank you for your prayers and support. Have and amazing week!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

Sept. 14, 2009

Chao!

It’s mostly Italian to say “Chao”, but we have been meeting and teaching a lot of people that speak Latin based languages and most of them understand, especially coming from Elder Gasparato. This week has been really good. We have seen a lot of miracles happen in our area, and the zone is doing well. One of those miracles wasn’t the baptism of Kevin and Robin, but Kevin will be getting baptized this Saturday. We felt it would be better for him to wait a week and be more prepared. Robin keeps saying he doesn’t want to do it now. I’m not convinced that he really knows why he is saying no. Maybe he just needs to wait until he is older.
Many of the miracles we have seen have come from new people we are teaching. We, along with the rest of the mission, have been praying to find more families and priesthood holders. We found three families this week that we are now teaching! One is a Sri Lanka Father and an Indian mother that have twins that were born in Germany and who are now 9. Another is a Mauritian family with a father, mother, brother, and sister. The last was another Mauritian family with seven members including parents, kids, cousins, and their Grandmother! The best part about these families is that they have both parents! There are not many full families left in the UK, so it truly is a miracle that we found three in one week. We are also teaching a boy named Johnson (11) who is scheduled to get baptized on September 25.

It’s good to hear that mom is feeling better. (I was sick and unable to go to the cabin over Labor Day. I had asked him about his health and his upcoming driving test.) I hope everyone else is feeling well. My health has been great for the most part. I haven't had any illness yet, so I am very grateful. I have been practicing driving with the member we live with actually and my driving test is on October 5th! Pray for me!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

Me, Elders Meats and Mclachan, Sisters Pressgrove and Hardisty, Elder Zundel, Dave (A YSA Member from our ward), Elders Gasparato and Trevisan (the Italians)

E. Trevisan knew Elder Noor Sabbah in Italy and has been relayin' messages between us haha!

Me, Elders Zundel and Trevisan, and Sisters Hardisty and Pressgrove while on Pday with Brighton District.

All of the Zone Leaders of the mission, President & Sister Shamo, and the assistants at Zone Leader Council this last Tuesday. We have this meeting the first Tuesday of every transfer.

Jenni (mother), Martina (aunt), Barney (father), and Fran (nan=grandmother) at the baptism of Taylor, (10) Thelvina (8 - cousin), and Darian (12)!

Sept. 7, 2009

Hello again!

Ill apologize straight away for the lack of pictures. I ran out of time last week and I forgot my camera today, but I’ll do my best to send more next week.

Everything is going great here. We always have our ups and downs throughout the week with our investigators... One day we are really excited about how things are going, then they all come up with concerns and almost get dropped, but the next day everything is ok again. Kevin and Robin plan to get baptized this Saturday. We have been a bit worried about what would happen after they get baptized. The reason why is because Kevin is here on a short term visa and leaves back to Mauritius on the 15th! We hope that he will continue going to church there, but he is also the main support that Robin has. Robin's mom is a LA active member, but we are having a bit of a struggle to reactivate her. We have another baptismal date with the younger brother of a Mauritian recent convert. His name is Johnson. He is 11 and is pretty cool, but has some behavioral problems. Their mother and younger brother are potential baptismal dates as well, but all of them have been taught before. We hope that the whole family will come along soon.

Wow I can’t believe how much the old stake changed... its crazy to think our ward doesn't exist anymore. I looked forward to reporting home to our old ward, but I think the changes they made are for the better and I'm happy to have my membership with yours. It wouldn't be the same now anyway. Either you or I need to let the mission office know about the changes though.

I’m grateful to be here to experience all the miracles I have seen in peoples lives. I don’t know why that Lord blesses me sometimes, but I’m grateful for it. I know he takes care of His children

I love you guys and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

September 3, 2009

Heyyy!

Sorry I forgot to tell you about moves, I just read that mom would like to know when they are ha-ha. They happened today! I am still in Crawley though and still with Elder Gasparato. We are both really excited to stay here. We get along and work well together so it should be fun. I think he is the first companion I will have for 3 moves (around 4 1/2 months).

The last week and a half have turned out really well. How they turned out that way, I don't know, but the Lord made it all work out. Darian and Taylor got baptized with their 8-year-old cousin, Thelvina on Saturday. Our plans for the baptism were good and they were prepared, but we had some unexpected things happen. Their grandfather performed the ordinance and had to do it twice for Darian. It’s pretty normal for something like that to happen, but after all three were baptized another problem came up and it had to be done all over again. Everyone attending had already returned to another room when we realized he didn’t use their middle names in the prayer, so everyone came back and the girls all got baptized twice! There were some other things that happened that were pretty minor, so when the night ended we had a strong feeling of relief.

Kevin and Robin (Nando) are doing well. We were a bit worried about them during the week, but just yesterday, Bishop Easter (from Canada) took them to the temple. We heard from Bishop that is was really positive and he feels they will be ready for their baptism on the 12th.

We are excited to have so many things happening in our area and have a lot of new people we are teaching. They all have different concerns, but we pray that the Lord will help them be ready.

I love hearing how everyone is doing back home, it’s something I really look forward to every week. I’m running out of time to write everyone back now, but next week I will try to get it done.

I love you guys!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

August 24, 2009

Hello again!

This week hasn't been too eventful, but things are going great. We have been doing well as a zone and in our area. The zone had one of its best weeks in months last week.

In our area, there are 4 people preparing to be baptized. Darian and Taylor are 10 and 12 year old sisters with a date for this Saturday (Aug 29th). They are really cool and have a strong desire to be baptized so they can "officially be members of the church." Their grandma brings them because their mother is LA and their dad is atheist. We have met the whole family and they are nice, we just hope they will help support the baptism. The other two are Kevin (20) and Robin (11). They are cousins from a LA Maritian family. They have a date for September 11th. It can be hard to keep Robin focused, but Kevin has been really keen on everything. We hope he keeps his motivation and builds on it.

Today we are going to Brighton for P-Day. Elder Zundel, one of our district leaders, is going home next week and this is his last P-Day. I have been their on exchange before, but haven't looked around too much. It will be cool to be back on the coast for a bit.

For your question about the temple.... we don’t get to go through the temple very often (maybe 2 or 3 times a year). We do get to go to the grounds though. We try to take every convert there before they get baptized, we go there on moves day quite often, and we go on exchanges with the elders there once a moves. If the concern is for post, we also get post from the temple at Zone Conference and Zone Meeting. It’s a great blessing to have it so close even if we don’t get to go in very often.

I hope everyone is doing great and pray that you'll have an amazing week.

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

August 17, 2009

Ca va (Su vah)!?

"Ca va" is what we say to all the Mauritian people we meet. It means 'how are you' in French. Sometimes they get the wrong impression and go off speaking loads of French we don’t understand though.

This week has been full of miracles. Things are really going well. We finally taught the nieces I mentioned last week. Their names are actually Darian (12) and Taylor (10). They are really cool and are excited to get baptized. Their mother is less active and the father isn't a member, but we hope it will be good for the whole family. Their baptismal date is for August 29th. There is also a part member, less active family we found from Mauritius. Two of them, Kevin and Nando, now have a baptismal date for Sept. 12th. They are going to need a lot of encouragement to get there, but we are counting on the Lord to get them there.

We had two exchanges again this week, this time with Elders. I stayed in Crawley with an English Elder named Elder Tomlinson for the first one. He actually came out with me, so it was pretty cool to work with him. The other exchange I had was with an Elder from Bountiful who came out a moves after me. He was trained in the same district as me in London. Both exchanges were pretty good and the second was pretty exciting.... he didn’t know how to drive manual. We didn’t realize that before we started the exchange. Since I'm not allowed to drive, there was nothing I could do except pray and hope we made it through the day. We did, but it felt strange to me to have smooth shifting when Elder Gasparato came back to the area. I know the Lord was looking over us.

Crawley doesn’t have a whole lot of things to do for P-Day, but today most of the zone is coming here. We are going to play some English Football and have a good time, so I’m excited. Hope all is well. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

August 10, 2009

Hello!

My stress levels have finally gone back down after this week. It was an amazing experience to see the family get baptized and a great way to celebrate my hump day weekend! I’ll try to send a picture with the names of everyone involved with the baptisms. It was a great blessing to be a part of. Even now it doesn’t seem possible, and I know it wouldn’t have been without the Lord. The cake and other food helped to celebrate as well. (We had a grocery store deliver him a “Congratulations” cake and some other favorite foods to celebrate his hump day.) Thank you so much!!! Elder Gasparato says thank you as well :) To top it all off I passed my driving theory test on the 6th! Now I just have to schedule and take my practical. Until I pass that, I cant drive anymore :/

We have been finding and teaching other people all along the way, but most of them haven't stuck around for long. Now that we don't have the family as investigators, we really need to focus on finding new ones. We have some that we are excited about though. There are two nieces of a reactivated member that we have been trying to teach, but are struggling to make appointments with. Their names are Leigh and Taylor. They could be baptized this month if we see them soon. We are also teaching a cousin of one of the YSA that we bring on a lot of teaches. Her name is Emma and she doesn’t want to feel rushed, but she could be ready if she wanted.

We had two exchanges this week, both with sister missionaries. That was a first for me... I thought it might be a little weird, but it actually turned out really good. On a sister exchange we don’t go to their flat, but we can meet at the church and study with them and/or do some finding. With the sisters in Worthing we found on the highstreet for a couple hours and with the Epsom sisters, we did both. All four of the sisters in our zone are good, hard working missionaries, so we are grateful to have them here. We have several exchanges coming up with the rest of the zone.

I love you and hope things continue going well back home. I appreciate all your letters and support and if I haven’t written anyone back, let me know!! It is easy to forget who I have and haven't written. Have an amazing week!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

Me with all of the food my amazing family sent me for my hump day! Thank you!

All of the Zone Leaders of my mission at Zone Leader Council with President and Sister Shamo

Dave Sinclair, Jason Orr, Dieuma Soopramanier, Katijah Naiker, and others!

Monday, August 3,2009

Hello,

This week has been really full and kind of hectic. Everything turned out good in the end though. It’s always good to hear that back home things are going well.

To start the week we had a meeting called ZLC (Zone Leader Council). All the zone leaders met at Presidents house for basically the whole day Tuesday and talked about things that need to happen, goals, and plans for the next 6 weeks. It was really cool. Last moves they had a different meeting in place of it, so this was my first one. On Friday we had Zone Conference (ZC) where members of three different zones all came to the Crawley chapel to meet with President and Sister Shamo. Immediately afterwards we had an appointment with the family we are teaching.

This is where things got hectic. President needed to come with us to help interview two members of the family, but he needed to interview some Elders right after ZC. One of our district leaders, Elder Church, was supposed to do the rest of the interviews, but we were going to go on splits with President and him so we could be more effective. Elder Church and I finally left to their house over thirty minutes late, but when we got there, they weren’t even in. President came with Elder Gasparato twenty minutes later and the family arrived home around the same time. Eventually things worked out, but it was stressful. Sunday wasn’t much better because the ride for the family to come to church didn’t work out as planned, but the good news is that it did work out and they are still on track to be baptized on Saturday!! Until then I think I’ll still stress out about it a little. It has been such a blessing to teach this family. So many miracles have happened to make it possible for them to be baptized.

I’m sorry if that story sounds kind of confusing. I am out of time for emailing so I was trying to hurry. I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

July 27, 2009

Hello!

Things are still going well this week. Its only been a few days since my last email, so there's not a whole lot to tell you. Thank you so much for the pictures (the picture of Bekah looks just like Brinton to me! ha-ha)! I saved them to my memory card so I can look at them on my camera.

Our investigators are doing well. We have been finding new ones, but they haven’t been sticking around long. Our focus is on the family and now another Mauritian named Dorella. She is the daughter of the first Mauritian to get baptized in Crawley. We taught her a while back and tried to commit before, but she didn’t accept. After dropping her for a month and coming back she was ready. The only worry we have for the family is that all of them need to come to church this Sunday! Different family members have been sick lately and so some of them have only been once. To be baptized they have to come at least twice. Their date is still good for my hump day on the 8th.

Thank you for Jacob's address and for always letting me know so well how things are going. I love getting Katie's blog too. I hope all is well and will continue to pray for everyone. I love you guys!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

Elder Gasparato and I in the car with our district leaders, Elders Purser and Church last moves.

Elder Gasparato and I with the plan of salvation poster and scripture chain we made for Dieuma's family

July 23, 2009

Hello!

Time keeps going by faster and faster. It seems like every week I am telling you that we have to wait till Thursday to email, but it’s really every 6 weeks. Today is moves day and we did go to the temple, but only to take other missionaries. Both of us are staying here in Crawley. Every other companionship in the zone (5/6) changed except one so next moves should be a pretty fresh start for the zone. I think the zone as a whole is going to be a lot better.

We have had a really good week and are excited for this next moves. The family we are teaching here in Crawley is back on track. Not only that, but the daughter that seemed the most against it before is now the most for it! The mother's name is Dieuma (Gemma) so we call them Diema's family (the daughters have different surnames). Dieuma and her 5 daughters that are old enough are preparing to be baptized on August 8th! My year mark! They are doing really well and are excited for their baptism. They prayed about and picked the day themselves. We have been really blessed to get to teach them. They have truly been prepared by the Lord in every way. Every time we teach them it amazes me how well they listen and help each other.

We are teaching a few other people as well. Some of them are close to accepting baptismal dates, but they are scared to make the commitment. It is clear that they are receiving answers, but they're not so sure. We have hope for them though. I’ll update you on them next week.

As for my driving tests, I won’t be retaking my theory test until Aug 6th now. I was supposed to do it July 28th, but we have a leadership meeting. I have a cd that I got from the office that I can use to practice that part of the test I failed before, so this time around it should go a lot smoother.

I love you guys and pray that things are still going well. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

I finally made the sugar cookies you sent me ages ago (maybe for Christmas?). They were a little bit dark, but still tasted good :)

opening my birthday package! I was excited and surprised to see the mini PMG. Thank you! (I guess the starburst didnt make it through the heat of the post)

July 13, 2009

Hello everyone,

I am happy to hear that mom is up and moving. I have been praying for her every night. It sounds like she has a good doctor. Our family is really blessed with having the support and things we need. I look forward to getting the letter from the primary kids and will try my best to write them back.

This week has been good, but I definitely feel like it’s been a trying week. The reason why I say that is because the people we thought were close to baptism are really struggling. We have been working hard and feel that we are doing everything we can, but right now we have no baptismal dates. It feels good to know that we have done our part though. We are really looking forward to the next week to see how things will progress. We expect them to. We are still teaching the family, Sariya and others. The Lord has blessed us a lot this week with people to teach, we have a lot of investigators right now. I’ll tell you more about them as things happen though.

There is only one ward in Crawley. I don’t know if there are any areas in the mission that cover more than one ward except where the Spanish branch is in London. Elder Gasparato served there for 9 months, so he knows Spanish as well as Italian, English, and understands some French. He actually trained one of the other missionaries from Mesa, named Elder Lee. I think I mentioned him before (I think he knows Jacque).

As for my driving test.... I didn’t pass ha-ha. I got all the answers right, but they have an interactive part where you have to watch a video and click whenever you see a potential road hazard. In my opinion (as well as many others), it’s not very well made. I missed passing by just a couple of points. I have to retake the test in a couple of weeks and pay the fee again. To help me prepare the mission office sent me a CD-rom I can use during pday to practice with. I think I’ll be fine next time though. I think I misunderstood how that part of the test worked at first. I probably won’t have the driving part of my test for a couple months which means for a month or two I won’t be able to drive. Oh well. I am not worried about that part of the test. It feels normal to drive here now.

I can’t believe another moves has already almost gone by. Moves is next week on Thursday already, so I won’t be emailing you again until then. Both of us will most likely stay here, but a couple members of our zone will be going home, so for me things will still change a little.

I am really grateful to have you all as my friends and family. I love you and hope that you have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Kade Karges

PS: I forgot my camera so I can’t send pictures this time.. sorry!

Oh and people have been asking about my last name. Where does it come from?

You were right about other missionaries asking where I got the mini PMG (Preach My Gospel). So are they still available??

July 7, 2009

Hello everyone!

Things are going great here in Crawley. Things have seemed different lately, but I have new responsibilities that I'm getting used to and now new leadership (ie President). We have several investigators, but our main focus is on a Mauritian family of a single mother with seven daughters! They are really cool and excited to be baptized on the 25th of July. Well, most of them are. They range from 17 years old to 2 months and the 15 year old (Melissa) likes to be the odd one out, so she isn’t so sure about it. Two of the girls are too young, but the 6 year old is probably more excited than the rest! haha. They are really cool. There is a Russian lady named Sariya that we hope with accept a baptismal date this week as well.

It was sad to say goodbye to President and Sister Swinton, but President and Sister Shamo are really cool. They have a daughter with them as well. Her name is Meagan and she is 15. They don't seem as executive, but are more on common level with us. President Shamo wants to come out on teaches and even finding with missionaries. We have already met him twice, first for Zone conference, then for zone Meeting. (as a side note, I didn’t realize how particular this setup is to my mission, I don’t know of any other missions that have zone meetings). That is actually why PDay is today instead of yesterday. He mentioned to me that he plans on leaving things how they are now, but in a few months he has a lot of things he might try. He has also been telling the whole mission about some changes that might happen church wide in missionary work. He said he is not allowed to tell what it is yet, but it is going to involve members a lot more.

You are right, that it will probably take a while to get to know him, but he is funny and cool. He is definitely different than President Swinton, but that’s what I expected. He served his mission here and told us that he and his companion got put in jail for a night once! haha. He is really happy and excited. Apparently he is responsible for basically all church videos and broadcasts that have come out in the last 30 years. He worked very closely with President Hinkley. He has already told us several stories about that and I look forward to hearing more.

Thank you for letting me know how the cabin was :) I was actually hoping you would. I was thinking about it over the weekend, but not in a sad way. It sounded like you had an exciting church service! haha. (We had a bear come into camp while we were in Church.) It is cool that Kevin got to fly in. I wanted to thank him for writing me as well. He can write directly to me if he wants. I would love that. Tell him I know what he is talking about when people say "amen" and "that’s right" during church. I don’t know if I ever told you, but we had a guy yell good morning back to the bishop once when I was in Catford. The same guy later said "that was a good snack" and "no thanks, I’m not thirsty" during sacrament.

Driving has been going really well. I need to learn specific maneuvers like parallel parking and backing around a corner, but I think I’ll be ok. The father of the family we live with is a driving instructor and offered to sit in with me for an hour to help, I think for free! Normally it cost like $30 an hour. That is a major blessing. I have to take a written theory test before I take the real thing. I have that test tomorrow, so your prayers will be greatly appreciated. I haven’t had as much time to study as I would have hoped, so I’m praying hard!

I love you guys and hope your summer is great. Enjoy being on your feet mom! (Five & ½ weeks after foot surgery, they finally took the pins out of her foot and she is now in a walking boot. Yea!!)

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

President & Sister Swinton and I at the last conference i saw them.

Elder Gasparato, Danny(a YSA in the Crawley ward), and I outside of the temple.

My old district in Portmouth.

Sister Mitchel and I just before I left Portsmouth.

June 29, 2009

Happy 4th of JULY!!!

I know it’s pretty early to be saying that, but next time I email it would be after the fact and that wouldn’t make sense. I actually won’t even be emailing next Monday. We have a meeting with the new Mission President, so P-Day will be rescheduled, probably on Tuesday.

Sorry I keep leaving answers out to some of your questions. I’ll try to get them all today... We saw President Swinton for the last time on Friday. We had Temple conference, so we got to go through a session with them and then they spoke to us. It was a really good day. I will really miss them. They have really helped me to grow and become the missionary and even person I am now. We meet President Shamo for the first time on this Saturday (the 4TH!) I’m excited to see what he is like. I have heard good things, but don’t know much, so I’ll tell you more next week. We did go to the conference in London. We had a double mission conference, both us and the London mission. It was really cool to see the North side of London, and the Hide Park chapel. I know I’ve been saying it a lot, but I’ll try to catch up on sending pictures. Last of all I did get my birthday present!! Thank you so much :) I was actually really surprised to see the mini PMG. Thanks again.

We found an internet Cafe to email in and I think my time is almost up. Everything is going pretty well here. Nothing too spectacular has happened. The work is going pretty good, but it’s a little different than I have been used to, so I’m still adjusting. Driving has been fun. I think I learned really fast. I haven’t had any problems. I will be taking my theory (written) test next week and hopefully my practical (driving) test in a month or so.

It’s good to hear that everyone is well. I pray for everyone each night. I love you guys. I’m so grateful for the family I have. You’re amazing!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

June 22, 2009

HELLO!

So last week we were told we could use a certain computer at the church to email and then right when we started, we found out that we weren't allowed to use it ha-ha. We decided to be obedient and try to find another way. We found a library that has internet, but it charges £2.50 and hour! So I tried to get on last week and send another email, but I only paid for 15 minutes and it shut down before I got it sent... I am back at the library now. We are using it today, but next week we think we found an internet cafe that only charges £1 an hour.

To answer your questions.. We live in a side apartment of a member’s house. We have our own entrance, but they are connected by the laundry room and garage. It’s not the best flat.... but maybe I was just spoiled in Portsmouth. It is a lot smaller and not the cleanest. We have a car in our area, actually I’ve been the one driving for the last 2 weeks. I am trying to get practice so I can take my test soon. My American license stops working at the beginning of August, so if I don’t have a license by then I can’t drive. There are a lot of round abouts here which was new, but I’m doing well at manual. We often pick up some YSA guys to come on teaches with us and on my third day ever driving in England they didn’t even realize I was just learning.

Elder Gasparato is from Italy and has a European license, so he can drive here anyways. He is really cool and funny. I didn’t even realize it until yesterday, but he is my first foreign companion!! We get along really well and are having fun. He is basically training me to be a zone leader. I am liking it so far. There are two districts in our zone, one with 3 companionships and the other with 4. Then there's us (we're not really considered a part of either district). The District Leaders account with us nightly and the AP's call us in the morning to see how things are going. Every Sunday we account for the whole week to the AP's (and President every other week). This all sounds pretty boring, even to me, but I thought you would like to know ha-ha.

I like the area. It’s not as English as other areas because it is all pretty modern, but it is pretty green. It is only twenty minutes from the Temple actually! I went on exchange there with Elder Church this week and we had a DA on the temple grounds. It was pretty cool. We took a couple of investigators to the Temple as well on Saturday. It is a lot easier to arrange a trip from here.

Thank you so much for you prayers and birthday wishes! I had a great birthday :) I got the food and the cards, but no package yet. It arrived in Portsmouth after I left. I will get it soon though. I wasn’t expecting so much from TESCOs!! I have so much food! Thank you! (TESCO is a grocery store in England that makes deliveries. For his birthday we ordered a cake and a few other things that were delivered to him.) I love you so much and hope things are going well. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges