April 26, 2010

Hello again!

You are moved in!! That is exciting. I am actually quite surprised that things happened so quick. I almost felt like I was helping you though. A mission flat was closed down so we spent most of our Saturday moving everything out. We had gone to the temple with an investigator, Larisa, in the morning. While there we picked up the mission van and cleared out the Guildford flat with the help of another Elder. It was kind of weird to spend so much time working on that. We got back to the mission office late so we stayed at the Assistants flat and then drove back in the morning. As we finished I realized that you would have been moving things at the same time. Thank you so much for the pictures of the new house! It looks really nice. I am excited to come home to it. I've been trying to send pictures home for the past couple weeks, but keep running out of time. Before I forget, moves is next week, so I won’t be emailing until Thursday and it could be from a new area! This moves was only 5 weeks long so it seems extra short.

Things are going well here. The weather has finally warmed up. We aren’t wearing suit coats anymore, but the evenings can get pretty cool. It seems kind of weird to think that I finished my second English winter already. We have had a few investigators accept baptismal dates, then drop off. Sheila and Danielle are the main ones you could pray for. We are also still working with Larisa. She loved the temple and saw a conference session for church because that is how we see the last session here. She hasn't accepted a baptismal date yet, but hopefully will soon. She is great, she just needs to follow the answers she is getting. Not much else has happened this week. We are looking for new people this week.

Thanks for all that you do. I love you guys. Give Jeff my congratulations! That is so exciting! He is going to be a good missionary. Have a great week and a half!

Love,

Elder Karges

April 20, 2010

April 20, 2010
Hello again!

Everything is going well! Sorry I am emailing a day late again. I actually didn't expect to be this week. We had P-Day yesterday, but all of the Internet Cafes were closed. Next week should be pretty normal so I should email on time.

It has been another good week. We have some new people progressing. Danielle has a baptismal date for May 16th, but didn't come to church. We've got to work on that. Larisa, came to church again and will be going to the temple visitors' center on Saturday. She doesn't have a baptismal date yet, but hopefully will accept one while at the temple. Sheila is our other baptismal date, but she is struggling health wise. Your prayers are greatly appreciated and I know they are great source of help to me and our investigators.

It sounds like things back home are going well. -Hang in there Jeff, the Lord is excited to have you serve, His call for you will come soon. If it is to some place like England and you have to wait as long as I did, then maybe we will see each other.- You'll have to send me more pictures of the house, especially when you move in. It’s going to be interesting to come back to a different house, but I'm excited. It’s good that Jacque will be in my ward she'll have to help me transfer back into the normal world.

I love you guys! Have a great week!


Love,

Elder Kade Karges

April 13, 2010

Hello!

Sorry I'm late. I didn't know before last p-day that this p-day was going to be on Tuesday. It has been another great week, but has been filled with meetings more than anything else. The reason why P-day got moved is because we had a zone training day yesterday. It went really well. Normally zone leaders are in charge of this meeting for their zone, and because this is a short moves (5 weeks- ends on May 9th) they combined us with another zone. Splitting the presentation with the other zone leaders made it a lot simpler plus we went to their chapel, so it was cool to see central London again. We ended up going to President’s house last Monday night, then had ZLC there on Tuesday and then had zone conference on Thursday as well. All of the meetings were great though, so it was definitely worth it. Despite only having about half of a week to actually proselyte in, we still saw miracles.

First off, Craig was finally confirmed!!! He had some tough opposition in the two weeks since his baptism, but he pulled through. It was fast and testimony meeting again as well, so the service was quite good. For the third month in a row now, the testimonies have been all about missionary work :) The ward is really excited about it and it is showing. I was talking to a member of the stake presidency sometime on Sunday, and he said he had taken a rough count of about 130 people in the sacrament meeting! More and more people have been coming out whether they be recent converts, investigators, or even less actives. One of the investigators that came this week was a complete miracle. Her name is Larisa and she only moved from Romania 5 days ago now. We met her on Saturday outside of the church. She was looking for a 7th Day Adventist meeting house to attend a service, but someone led her to ours. We were happy to help her and found out where the closest one really was, and then give her a Book of Mormon and invited her to come back the next day. She did, and she had read much of the index. Her obvious concern is when the Sabbath should be, but she loved church and recognized a lot of our hymns. We are helping her practice English and she is going to read and pray. Sheila, Belinda's mum, has another baptismal date. She could really use your prayers for some up coming medical test and a surgery in the summer. Her date is after the tests, but before her surgery, May 30th.

Wow I had no idea that the article was so wide spread. I just went to the church website and, after looking around the news archives a bit, even found a link to it there. I have heard a little feed back on it but it sounds like you've heard more! I am glad that it is a positive article and that it has the opportunity to have such a positive effect. I hope that it does. It hasn't affected the work in my individual area that I've seen yet, but the members are really excited about it. The bishop's wife, Sister Price called before church to let us know about it and ask if she should bring a copy for us. She brought one to put on the notice board and I have heard that has been done in other wards. President Shamo said he would get me and anyone else that was involved a copy of the real newspaper. They had to order them, so I'll let you know when I get it.

Every time I stop and think about the family I have and the opportunities the Lord has been giving me, I am amazed. I really love you all and am grateful that you are my family, and friends!

Love,

Elder Kade Karges

April 5, 2010

Hello!

I was quite surprised that President (Shamo) called you as well! I talked to him Sunday morning and he said he loved talking to you :) He said he could see how I turned out the way I did. I agreed with him when he said how amazing of a mother and great of a father I had. We'll be going to his house tomorrow for a meeting, so I'll pass on your gratitude.

It has only been a few days, so not a whole lot has changed. One of the biggest events, even for myself,  was reading the article. I actually just saw it for the first time last night and read it just now. It's not exactly what I thought it would be like, but seems quite positive so we are happy. We didn't know it was going to come out so quickly. We found out a day late, so we weren't able to buy a paper. The mission is trying to order some because all of the shops send them back to the distributer. Hopefully we'll get the real thing.

General conference was the other big event. We were able to watch all of the sessions, which was nice. I think I actually liked the Saturday ones the most. Keep praying for Craig who will be confirmed this Sunday and for Belinda's mum, Sheila. We have taught her off and on, but she has been really sick. Last time we saw her, she said she wanted to be baptized before a big operation in July. We are working with the son of a member family named Sam as well. Our main focus is actually on finding some new, solid investigators. That should happen very soon, but many people have been leaving on Easter holiday trips.

I am really excited to get the other pictures of the house. It looks really nice. I do remember seeing it as well before I left. I am happy that everything is working out now. I love you and pray that your move will go well. Happy Easter!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

April 3. 2010

We were just surprised by a phone call from Kade's mission president - President Shamo. He said that we had a wonderful son who was now famous :). He knew the article that was circulating on the internet did not contain the pictures that accompanied the article that came out in the London Times Newspaper, so he ask us for our e-mail address and sent a PDF of the article to us. Youcan see Kade on both the first and second pages!

Thanks, Roxanne

April 1, 2010

Hello!

Quite a lot has happened over the last week and a half! In fact I didn't realize how much had happened until I just sat down to email. First of all today was moves, but I am still in Staines. I am really excited to be staying and to be working with my new companion, Elder Cook. He is from St. George Utah and is REALLY good at the piano. I have served around him before and he took my place in Crawley when I left. He just came from Crawley here, so it has been good to find out what has happened since I left. The most exciting thing he has told me is that one of my recent converts, Ross, is engaged to the bishop’s daughter there. They won’t be getting married for a few months, but it was quite a surprise because they aren't very old. I think one of the driving forces behind it is that her family is moving back to Canada and she would prefer to stay. I have heard that the other recent converts are doing well too.

As for what’s happening here and now, I'll start with teaching and baptizing. We are always teaching a lot of people and right now a lot of them are part member families. There are no new baptismal dates as of yet, but that is because they have all been getting baptized! I told you about Courtney and Colisha already. They are doing really well. He is excited to have the Priesthood and they are both excited that their daughter received a blessing. Both have already helped us teach other people and it feels like they have been doing it for a long time. They are AMAZING. Craig got baptized on Sunday. His service was really good and seeing how happy he was, was even better. He has really come a long way and changed so many aspects of his life. He will be confirmed on the 11th because general conference is this week. I am really excited for conference as well, both to hear it myself and to have investigators and recent converts come. I can't believe it is the last one of my mission!! Time is still going by faster and faster.

Probably the most unexpected and exciting event of the week, was being interviewed by the London Times...! Monday night we got a call from President Shamo in which, after telling us to sit down and to say yes before anything was explained, he asked us to meet with the London Times Newspaper on Wednesday. So more then a week ago now, we got the chapel prepared and two female reporters and a camera man came to visit. President and Sister Shamo were interviewed first, then the two of us (Elder Bång and I). After the interviews they had planned to shadow us for a couple of hours, so first we went out street contacting, and then we had a teach. As they came along to each thing, everything went perfectly. We had a few people talk to us and a lady from Latvia even became a new investigator right there on the spot. The photographer took loads of pictures the whole time and just before we went to the teach, he stopped us to take more. The teach we had was with a recent convert (almost at his 2 year mark) named Tseten. It went just as well as the contacting. More pictures were taken and I'm sure they felt the spirit. We were told to do everything just like we normally would, so we said a lot of prayers with them and even sang. Since I came to Staines, we have started singing hymns at the beginning of every teach. When it was all over, we gave them both Books of Mormon with our combined testimony written inside. They said the article should be printed in a section called the London Times 2 in about a month. It will most likely be online as well. For the paper edition there is supposed to be a readership of 1.8 million! Hopefully this will affect many lives and be good publicity for the church. There was a Public Relations guy from the church named Brother Adcock that came along the whole time. He said we couldn't have expected it to go any better. Your prayers would be greatly appreciated as the article isn't out yet.

That is the majority of what happened since I last emailed. It won't be long before I email again, but I'm sure many more miracles will happen. This is the Lord's work and his hand is DEFINITELY in it. I love you and hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

This is the link to the article. We don't see any pictures, but it mentions him a couple of times.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7083428.ece