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