Elder Karges: March 26, 2009

HELLO!

Moves came and went and I am still in Portsmouth. I really wanted to stay actually, so I'm happy. Not very many people moved. A couple missionaries went home, but no new ones came out, so things didn’t change much. I’m still DL and Elder Church is still here with me. Only one person moved from my district and that was Elder Hayes. So we are losing our Welshman, but we are gaining a Swedish. The new guy in Chichester is Elder Wiklof. This moves is only 5 weeks long, so it’s a bit shorter. We have one short moves a year I guess. I know there is a reason for it, but I can’t remember what it is. I think it has something to do with us needing to go home two weeks early. They don’t want us staying past our Visa, so it just a precaution.

Things are going great. We had such an amazing week. Vicky Beatrice Odhiambo and Sophie Turner are now both members of the restored Church of Jesus Christ! The baptism went great. Both of them were pretty nervous before hand, but they were just glowing afterwards. They both had lots of visitors as well. Hopefully we can start teaching some of their friends and family soon. The ward showed a lot of support as well. There were probably about 50 people there. The preparation for the service went well. Elder Church and I made invitations to give to anyone and everyone we met and gave some to Vicky and Sophie as well. Baptisms are the perfect missionary tool. We had each of them pick a speaker (Lyndsey Taylor and Myself), a hymn, and someone for the prayers. Our ward mission leader (Steve Taylor) helped make the program and some of the calls. They also chose who baptized and confirmed them. Elder Church baptized Sophie and I confirmed her. I have never done that before, so I was excited and honored. Brother Mark Taylor (Steve's dad) baptized Vicky and Elder Church confirmed her. Our Zone Leaders did both of the interviews. Since they are my investigators, I can’t interview them. It has to be someone who didn’t teach them.

We spent the whole day at the Church Saturday before the baptism. I don’t know if I described the situation before, but Vicky hasn’t lived in her place very long and I guess one of the other ladies living in the same house has caused her a lot of problems. She made some threats and even tried to act on them once, so... it wasn’t safe for her to stay there anymore. She stayed with her sister in London during the week, but came down for the weekend. We brought any church videos we could find and some Ensigns and things for her to read and she stayed at the church all day Saturday. We taught her a few things and had loads of other stuff to do there so it worked out great. We were in charge of filling the font and setting up as well.

I don’t have my planner with me so I’m trying to remember what we did the rest of the week ha-ha. I don’t know why I keep forgetting it on P-Days. I’m pretty sure the rest of the last week and a half was pretty normal. We did some finding, taught and had DA's, and had the baptismal interviews. Oh and I went on another exchange with Chichester. Other than that I don’t know. If there is something I’m forgetting, Ill catch you up on Monday.

Thanks for the info on President Shamo. I knew a little, but would like to know more. What week of the Church News is it in, because the member we live with gets it too. You can still send it if you would like as well. Getting post is always good :) I got your last envelope as well. Thank you! I like the jokes and stories you send. I actually used one of the stories in me district meeting a few weeks back. It was the one about the missionaries on the plane that you sent ages ago. I copied it and gave it out to my whole District because I really liked it.

Thanks for all that you do. I love you!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges