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