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