7/19/2010

Happy Monday to you too!

Thank you for sending all the info about my talk(for his homecoming). I'll probably try to read it in the next couple days. I realized the typo's in the information (itinerary) they sent as well. I got a copy that was the same as yours so I called the office, but they said they had sent it to the right address anyway. Apparently it’s the church offices that had the wrong email, but the mission has the right one. It is so cool to hear about everyone getting their mission calls. I know it’s been two years, but its still feels like I just left and like some of them shouldn't be leaving yet.

The last week of missionary work has been great. We have had some good miracles. We don't have a baptism on the 24th anymore, but Terri is still going to get baptized soon. She wasn't able to come to church this week and might not be able to next week, but is still preparing for either July 31st, or August 7th. We have another baptismal date for July 31st named Sidney. He is a really cool guy from Portugal. He has never been baptized and has had a few experiences lately that have strengthened his faith. We found him walking down the street but it turns out he knows some of the recent converts and another member of the ward already. He is progressing really well, but he's only 25 and has a lot of other things he likes to do. We have been working with others as always and hopefully there will be a couple more people preparing to get baptized by the time I leave.

Audrey has been doing amazing as usual. In fact she went and did baptisms for the dead already! I talked to the brother (from another ward) who was doing the confirmations and he said he had asked her "Have you ever done this before?" to which she replied, "Yes, a week ago..... in church." Realizing she wasn't speaking of temple baptisms he asked how long she had been a member and was happily surprised to find out she was just baptized last week! The miracle gets better though. Elder Bien and I went to the temple with the ward as well and for two really good reasons. Elder Bien stayed with Lyne and her recent convert daughter, Kirsty, in the visitor’s center while I went in for an endowment session with Liliana, another recent convert from Portsmouth! Just this Tuesday, I found out that she had completed all her interviews and was planning to go and it fit in perfectly with the ward trip. It was such a miracle to have one recent convert in an endowment session, another in the baptistery and an investigator in the visitor’s center all at the same time! The Lord has been so merciful to me throughout my whole mission and continues to do so. I look forward to one last full week of miracles in His work.

Have a wonderful week! I probably won’t get to email you again, so we'll talk again in about 10 days.. in person! Love you!

Love,

ELDER Kade Karges

July 12, 2010

Hey!

Its kind of crazy to think that I'm only going to email you one more time after this... its played such a big role in my life for 2 years, but I don't know who'll I’ll email when I can just talk to you ha-ha.

This week has been really good. We are still seeing lots of miracles, the best of all being Audrey's baptism! She is amazing and so was the service. Several stressful things happened starting the day before, which caused some re-arranging, but it all came together nicely in the end. The only thing that should have been better is if we weren't late! We felt really bad because we thought we had worked things out perfectly, but it was only 10 minutes and Audrey was really good about it. She was just glowing the whole time and on the day of her confirmation she even helped fellowship one of our other investigators, Terri, at church. Terri is actually then next one scheduled to get baptized. Her date is the 24th. A really cool miracle happened with her too. While we were on exchange with one of our district leaders on Tuesday, we stopped by and she reaccepted a date (having dropped a few days before). We were able to see her two more times and she was planning to come to church when we got a text Saturday night saying she had changed her mind. We left her a message, but didn't talk to her that night. In the morning we felt that we needed to go to her house and share a scripture or pray. We ended up doing both and she even said a prayer herself for the first time with us! She prayed for the Lords help to come to church and in the end came to the last two hours!! (I don’t know if I’ve told you, but we have Priesthood, Sunday School, then Sacrament meeting here.) She had a good experience and is still preparing for baptism. We have a few other people really close to having dates, but not quite yet.

It still doesn't feel like I'm going to see you all in like 3 weeks, but I do look forward to it. I love you and am STILL praying for you all.

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

July 5, 2010

Hello!


We have had a good week. Elder Bien and I are having fun working together. The amount of people we are teaching is higher than we've had before, but we wish more people were getting baptized!

Audrey has hung in there, in fact she's amazing! Edd, even though he referred himself, seems to have disappeared. We had one other baptismal date pick up and drop within a few days, but we aren't giving up on any of them. Our second date right now is actually someone we just found. Airida is a Lithuania lady that apparently met missionaries back home. We didn’t find that out until she spoke over the phone with one of my converts, Valerijus, from Crawley. He invited her to meet us often, come to church, and read the Book of Mormon. After such a good phone call, we committed her on the spot and she accepted to get baptized on July 24th. We have had quite a few referrals recently (last week) and this week a visiting Canadian couple brought their non-member friends... Miracles! We feel good about a lot of these people progressing. Sometimes I wish I had more time to see it happen!

I'm really glad Audrey got to email you. The thought came to me a few times so I thought "why not?"! I thought she might actually get along really well with mom. She already passed her baptismal interview and plans to go into the temple for baptism a week after her own baptism on the 10th. It was moved earlier because she is definitely ready.
I hope the cabin is fun! I miss it and look forward to being there next time. Our ward mission leader and his family had us over for a 4th of July dinner. You are always in my prayers. I love you!

Love,

Elder Kade Karges

June 29, 2010

Hey!

Sorry I'm a day late. I didn't know until after last P-Day that we were going to have Zone Conference on Monday, making our P-Day move. This last week was probably the best so far here in Taunton. We missed two days of proselyting to travel to ZLC and back, but still ended up with two new baptismal dates, three people at church, and more teaches than the last several weeks. On Monday we drove about three and a half hours to Staines first. We left during our P-Day so that we could get there early. We were able to teach two of my recent convert families while we were there and one of them fed us! It was a really good experience and was cool to stay in the Staines flat again. After ZLC on Tuesday, which went longer than usual, we ate dinner with the family of one of Elder Bien's recent converts in Slough. The late schedule caused us to stay in Reading for the night. We finally made it home on Wednesday and got straight to teaching. Zone conference yesterday was back in Reading (2 hours away) so we've been doing a lot of driving lately. Elder Bien doesn't have his license yet, so I'm always the driver.

The first new baptismal date is Audrey White. I can never remember what I've shared before, so if I repeat what I've told you already, or if I leave things out I apologize. She is the South African lady who was introduced to the church by a work colleague who is a bishop in Germany. After he told her to meet the missionaries, she called around and her referral came to us in the post. We called and started teaching her right away. She has been to church twice and has felt good about things all along, but knowing that I am going home, she picked my last weekend in the field to get baptized, July 24th. Edd Butcher is our other baptismal date for the 10th of July! He came from a referral in the post as well. He is English and in his twenties. Apparently missionaries taught him in the past, but he didn't have his life in the right place. Now that things are changed, he not only wants to get retaught, but baptized as soon as possible! We have been working with several other people most of which just haven't progressed as much as we would have hoped. The Rowden and the Gillard family have both been put on the back burner you could say. The other person we hope will accept a date soon is Lyne. She is the mother of a recent convert and has been taught a long time ago, but never as much as we have taught her. She could use your prayers to live commandments.

I almost forgot to explain the guy who called. He is a member in Staines. His name is Vitaly. He comes on teaches LOADS with the missionaries. I actually talked to him on the phone yesterday and he said he had called you!  He is a funny guy. Hopefully you’ll get to meet him if he can come to my homecoming. He cooks amazing food too!

I think the last of my birthday cards came ha-ha. Thank you so much everyone for making it a special time. It is a great blessing to have such loving friends and family. I have always felt very blessed in that way, which is why I think eternal families has always been the strongest point of my testimony. Every missionary's last zone conference they bear their testimony about their missions. As I did so yesterday it was a strange feeling, but I felt good as well. I don't know when it will, but it hasn't hit me yet that I'm coming home. To be honest I'd rather it didn't until I am already there. I love being a missionary and I love you!

Love,

Elder Kade Karges

June 21, 2010

Hello again,

It hasn't been long since Thursday, so not a lot has changed. Instead of a long letter I'll try to send some pictures. You are right about it being good to stay in an area, especially when the people like having you. A YSA aged guy named Joe that we have been out teaching a lot with gave a talk yesterday. Of course the whole day was about fathers, but in the middle of his talk he stopped to talk about missionary work and encouraged other members to go out with us. He has recently returned to activity and this was his first talk in 11 years. He did an amazing job.

Audrey came to church and really enjoyed it. She is doing great. No day has been set for her baptism, but she is planning on it being in July. She has already invited some friends and family, including Bishop Brown from Germany (he is the colleague that introduced her to the church). Sam and John missed church again. They seem to be doing well, but things come up on the weekends. They are a great family and the gospel has already changed their lives a lot. We are also teaching Lyne the mother of a recent convert named Kristy. She has been looking for the truth for a long time and has investigated many churches, even ours before. She has come a long way in the last couple weeks and will be coming to church for the first time this week. We are also teaching a lot of new people here and there, but need to find some more solid people!

Thanks for all that you do. I am grateful for your prayers.

Love,

Elder Kade Karges


























Pic 1 - Elder Gardner, Elder Church, Elder Evans, Elder Tomlinson, Elder Hansen, Elder Bien and I after the Bath District meeting a couple weeks ago.












Pic - Elder Bien and I with our matching new comp. suits and tie and cufflink set! Don't worry it was a really good deal!

June 17, 2010

Hello!!!

I'm still in here! Elder Bien and I thought for sure that one of us would leave, but we are staying together here in Taunton. We had a ward council last night and after letting them know, the bishop told us that he had talked to President Shamo and actually requested that we stay. Every other companionship in the zone changed and I think every other zone leader companionship changed. We are excited to stay together and see another six weeks of miracles!

We haven’t had any huge successes since serving together, but feel that things have been building up. The ward is getting more and more excited and more and more members are participating in the work. A few of them have been eager to give referrals as well. A lot of our new investigators come and go, but we have had some that have come very far and just haven't decided when they want to get baptized. I've spoken of Sam and John's family before. Sam says she wants to be ready, but will choose a date in July by the next time we see her. Audrey, who I think I've also spoken of, is going to do the same. She wants to find out when her colleague, a Bishop in Germany, can come to be a part of it. The other long term couple we have spoken of is Andy and Debb. They have slowed down a bit, but are still seeking for the right answer.

My Birthday was great! We had a few teaches with people who found out, so they got me cards and things. Along with all of the cards that you sent, I have well over 21! Thank you so much for making it a special time. It was quite funny to read that you had planned to send so many cards. It explains why one of the ones I received actually came with a slip of paper with my name and address and a note saying to write me in the first week of June! Ha-ha. We had ward council at night as I said before and our ward mission leader actually brought a cake and a present from their family! We have already eaten one of the Oreo pies and were saving the other one to see what happened at moves.
I really love being a member of our family and having the friends that I do. I love you all and hope you have the best week ever!

Love,

Elder Kade Karges

June 7, 2010

Hello!

I'm actually emailing on time! I even have the full hour this week. Last Monday was an amazing experience. Pete and Anne Marie Buchanan got sealed after Pete also took out his endowment. Several other members of the Portsmouth ward were there. It was really good to see them. It took pretty much our whole day to attend the temple with them, and after wards they took us out to dinner. It was a pub, but it’s normal for a family to go there for dinner. It’s kind of like having a restaurant with a bar back home. Pubs actually usually have some of the best meals.

Working in Taunton is still going well. I feel like I'm really starting to understand the area. We work in other towns quite often called Bridgwater and Wellington. President actually served as branch President in Bridgwater when he was here on his mission. The ward is getting more and more excited about missionary work. We brought the Elders' Quorum President and his wife on a really good teach. It ended up that his wife and the father of the family, Andy, had gone to the same school growing up and even gone to a lot of the same activities at the local Methodist church. She got up this Sunday and bore her testimony about having a great experience out teaching with the missionaries! Because of her testimony other members are showing more courage about coming out.

We have invited all of our current investigators to get baptized and none have a date yet, but they are praying for answers and progressing. Andy and Debb we see once a week, they are such a good family. There daughter Hannah will hopefully come to church with them next week. Sam and John have their hands full, but have been changing so much. They have come from not wanting us to pray around them to wanting to be at church every week. Sam's not concerned with getting baptized anymore, only when and if she'll be ready. We had a miracle phone call on Friday. A member from another ward use to be branch president here. He called explaining that he sometimes still gets calls related to our ward. A woman in our area had called him wanting visits from the missionaries herself. She is from South Africa originally and has a few grown children. Apparently she is a colleague with a bishop in Germany who has been answering all her questions. We have taught her once and look forward to seeing her again.

Our zone and the mission as a whole could use your prayers. Things have dropped a little and we are about to get a lot more missionaries next week. This is really exciting, but will take a lot of work too. Next week is moves, so I won't be able to email until Thursday. I don't know if I’ll stay or go, so if you plan on sending things either wait till Thursday or just send them to the mission office. Thank you for all for the birthday cards I have already received. I have always appreciated your support and love you all!

Love,

Elder Kade Karges