January 19, 2009

Hiya,

Things are going great still, but first things first... HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!! Thank you so much for all that you do. You're amazing and I Love you.

Being in England, a lot of people talk about their cultural backgrounds. I've been asked several times where my last name comes from, but I have no clue. I thought it was German, but I asked a German and he said he didn't think so haha. It would be cool if you could find out and let me know.

It sounds like things are going well. I'm looking forward to getting a wedding invitation in the mail. That’s too bad about the timing of Grandpa's surgery. I hope everything goes well, let them know i think about them a lot.

We have had a lot of ups and downs this week and took care of a few things. One of them was Elder Orme's driving test. He had to take it in the middle of the week, and he passed with flying colors! He didn't make a single mistake. I want to get my license soon, but maybe I'll wait till people forget how well he did... haha the real reason is its just a lot of time and money. Ill get it done though (I hear having a British licenses can get me a discount on insurance back home, because the test is more rigorous).

Our investigators are doing pretty well. We are teaching five or six people and I don’t think I have mentioned anyone. The people I mentioned before have since been dropped. It was hard to drop a couple of our recent investigators, but they have busy lives and have the agency to choose what they want to do with it. There is a really cool YSA aged girl named Kirsty we just picked up. She is busy, but very interested. There is a Turkish couple we are teaching as well. He speaks English and she doesn't, yet she came to church by herself this week. He had to work and works every Sunday, but I hope he can change his schedule to fit church in. We had one other investigator come to church named Dawit. He brought a friend with him too! They are from Eritrea, I think. Its hard to understand their accents..

The ward is really great here. They work well with us and there are several older ladies that bring us treats at church :) I really like it here. We had a couple DA's and on Friday we had an exchange, so I went to Chichester with my District Leader, Elder Bell. It was fun, but we did a lot of traveling. Area's are further apart out here, so it takes longer to exchange, plus Chichester is a walking are and is pretty big so it took a while to get to appointments.

I hope this week goes well for everyone as you all begin school and other things again. To answer your question about letters sent to my old address: yes, they will get to me. Elder Christensen has already forwarded a few, but it takes a little longer. Thank you for all your support.

Love,
Elder Kade Karges

My new district after bowling down by the coast last P-Day.

Alex Smith and I my last Sunday in Catford.

Christmas Pictures

Elder Christensen's mom made me pajama pants!


I dont think i ever sent Christmas pictures. The first is me wear things i got for christmas with the chair where is set out all my presents just like back home :) The second is the four of us at the member's home that fed us. That's her in the middle. Her name is Stella and she is amazing.



Editors Note: Just wanted to extend my apologies for posting a number of Elder Karges's letters all at once. Between the holidays, sick kids, and a vacation I've gotten a little behind.


I would also like to invite anyone who has e-mails/letters from Elder Karges that would like to share to e-mail me with them. We are planning to print out this blog in book form for him when he comes home. You can just share a comment, a quote from his letter or anything like that and I'll slowly get them worked in for his book. Thanks! Katie

January 12, 2009

Hello!

It is good to hear from you all again. Wow this week has gone by so fast. I feel like I just emailed you yesterday... I’ll try to think of some new things to share. It sounds like everyone had a good week. I read about the light rail experience you all had. It sounds pretty exciting. It actually looks and sounds a lot like it is here. The buses and trains here are exactly like the way you described the light rail. That is pretty exciting that it is open now, I’ll have to compare the two when I get back.

Pday last week was pretty hectic. I can’t remember if I told you, but the computers were down for most of the day, but we finally got on and emailed. Elder Orme is taking driving lessons so that took up two hours last pday and will take one hour today. I think he is done after that. I’m trying to decide if I’m going to do it. It is expensive, but basically has to be done if I’m going to drive over here. Getting a license is expensive too, but President wants us to do it.

Tuesday was a really good day. We didn't have many appointments planned, but brought three people into the church off the main road near by and showed them a short dvd and taught them a little. Everyone is busy around here, so we haven’t met any of them again since, but we will soon. We also got a call from an investigator that had dropped off the map over the holidays. We ended up seeing her that same day and it went great. Her name is Laura. She had a baptismal date before and still wants to get baptized, things just got kind of crazy.

Wednesday was pretty cool too. It was normal until the evening when we went to help with young men’s. They wanted us to teach about missionary meals that are cheap and quick. After sharing a quick message, all the young men went to the shop and had a pound to buy a whole meal, came back and prepared it, and then we tested each of them and scored them on speed, taste, and presentation haha. One of their leaders has only been back from his mission for a year or so, so he also judged.

Thursday we met with Laura again and she had prayed about it and decided she wanted to be baptized on the 7th of February! She still needs to come to church a couple times before that, but I’m excited for here. We are seeing her again tonight.

Friday was zone Conference and it was great. The spirit is always so strong there. President gave us new goals for the year and the new theme is the tree of life. We are supposed to stand by the tree of life and beckon others to come and partake of the fruit. He shared a quote with us that I really like. I think it was Elder Bednar it said something like 'The tree of life represents Jesus Christ and the fruit is the blessings of the atonement'. Zone conference was up in Reading and after it was over, our Zone went to the Costco that is up there! We ate pizza and even shopped a little because a senior couple was with us that had a Costco Card. I’ll send a picture of what I got.

Saturday was pretty normal, and Sunday was really busy. After church there was a youth Baptism and then we went to visit a recently reactivated lady preparing to go to the temple. In between those we had a miracle with an assignment we got form the mission home. They gave us a list of referrals that had not been contacted over the last year and when we went to see one that was more than six months old, he let us in and we taught him about the Restoration. He was a really cool guy name David Sims that has been looking for the truth. He has been through a lot and has tattoos all down his arms, but is probably one of the most sincere investigators I've had.

I tried to think of as much as I could and hope I gave you a good idea of what it is like here. The missionary work is pretty much the same, the area is a little different. Nothing is as busy as London, but it is still busy here. I haven't been down on the coast yet, but will soon. There is a place called spinnaker (sp?) tower and a small castle down there. It has been pretty dang cold, but hasn’t rained for ages until today. I hope you all have a tremendous week! I love you.

Love,

Elder Kade Karges

Me outside of Costco, in Reading, with the big bag of American pancake mix I bought (I already tried it and made some mapleine syrup to go with it. It tasted just like home!) The mix should last me a couple months!

A Bonus

It was a tradition of Elder Christensen's family to take a picture in the hallway on the way to open presents in the morning.

This one is from Elder Christensen's mother. They were companions in Catford.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed your missionary visit. We sure did. We had to wait for Brett to call us because we couldn't get the number he gave us to work. There was a lot of stress for about 30 minutes. I don't know if you received this picture so I'm sending it on. Besides it gives me an excuse to write. We sure appreciate your good son and the opportunity Brett has had to work with him, especially over Christmas. We kept looking at Kade's picture thinking he looked so familiar. Garry's brother and family came to visit and we were showing them some of Brett's pictures when our sister-in-law asked how her son got in the picture. Then we realized why he has always seemed so familiar to us. Andy and Kade could be brothers they look so much alike. It is truly amazing! Both so handsome! Thanks for raising such a fine son. We hope to keep track of him. Brett said he was transferred to Plymouth. We found it on the map, he got to travel a bit. I hope it is not any colder there. I feel a little concerned about his Arizona blood in the biting cold of England. It has been pretty cold here, but we don't have to contend with the humidity. Have a grand 2009. I would love to hear from you. Janet.

January 5, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Things are going great here in Portsmouth. The New Year has begun and I look forward to what lies ahead. We had the same schedule as usual on New Years Eve, so we didn’t stay up late, but we did celebrate a little. President Swinton didn’t want us out proselyting past six or even in the morning (for obvious reasons) so our weekly schedule got changed a bit. We had District meeting New Years Eve and I got to know a couple more missionaries. Their are six Elders in our district, but only four of us were there because two live on the Isle of Wyght and just stayed in. In the morning we did our weekly planning a little early considering most people would still be recovering from the night before. I hope you all had a good New Years. Since I didn’t stay up late here, I decided I would celebrate with all of you and shouted Happy New Years at 7 in the morning.

If i send half of an email in a couple minutes its because I do my emailing in a library now and we can only use the computers for 30 min at a time. If it isn’t busy we can just ask for an extension, but if there is someone in line then i will have to wait a while and get back on. If that ever happens in the future, you'll know why.

The rest of this week was pretty normal. We have taught a few people, but over the holidays everyone seemed to drop of the map and we lost contact. I think it happened all over the place because that’s how it was leaving my last area too. Things are starting to pick up again, but we've done a lot of finding to get it there. There is a high street here that is really good to talk to people on. It reminds me of an outdoor mall back home and even has an indoor part that is exactly like a mall. There is definitely a difference in cultures here.

The ward is great. I met loads of the members even before my first Sunday. A couple came on teaches with us and we had a couple dinner appointments too. The first was with The Honour Family who play a big role in the ward and whose dad is in the Stake Presidency and the second was with The Stokes Family. Both went really well and the on at the Stokes was really cool because the have to kids that are YSA age and most of the YSA came over to have dinner with us. Many of them are RM's and are a big help to the ward and to us as missionaries. Saturday Morning we helped clean the grounds around the church and I met a lot more people especially since the Primary was having a breakfast activity at the same time.

Sunday went really well. I took the place of another Elder from Mesa AZ that the ward really liked, so hopefully I made a good first impression. His name is Elder Barnwell. I actually met him at ASU before i came out. We have some of the same friends back home and they were the ones that realized we were called to the same place. I talked to him at the mission home as we crossed paths on moves day, but don’t know him very well. We had a couple come to church this week. One is Richard who we have only taught once now and the other we haven’t even taught yet, but came with a member family that is actually from London. His name is Anesu. The only other person we are teaching right now is a guy named Nick that has to work every Sunday. We are working on that :)

I don’t think I described my living arrangements last week, but we have it pretty nice here. We live on the top floor of a member’s home. Her name is Margaret Mitchel and she is an older lady. She has been living here for ages and a lot of the ward is related to her. It’s funny because it is a large ward, but there are a lot of repeated last names. We'll see how it goes trying to remember who is who. Sister Mitchel's daughter lives next door and apparently cooks us dinner every Sunday night and leaved it on the bottom stair for us. Up stairs we have our own bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living room/study room. I really like how it is all set up. In the attic there is even a little room to exercise in.

I think I also forgot to mention that Portsmouth is a bike area, so I'm an official missionary now!! We ride everywhere. It is a big city, so it has buses, but not like London. It can get tiring, but i actually like it a lot. Hopefully it will keep me in shape after sitting on buses all day the last five months.

Well my time is about up so I gotta go, but I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Kade Karges

December 30, 2008

Hello everyone!

I got MOVED!! I have officially left my greeny area and am now serving in the Portsmouth area. Before I forget, I’ll give my new address.

#70 Oriel Rd
Northend, Portsmouth
PO2 9EQ

England

It’s a lot shorter than the last one haha. I haven't seen much of the area yet, but it is a lot different than London. It is right along the southern coast, bordering the channel. My new companion is Elder Orme from Idaho Falls, Idaho. He seems really cool so far. I've only known him for about 2 hours, but I can tell he is a good missionary. He is the youngest of four boys and... I don't know much more. He seems like a smart and organized guy. I'll get to know him over this week and tell you more next time.

It hasn't been long since I talked to you on the phone. I really enjoyed that. You had really good questions. I was glad you had a lot, it’s what I expected. By the way did you record it? I thought I remembered doing that when Kyle called.

The day after Christmas (back in Catford) we picked up a new investigator named Morillo. He is from Brazil and speaks Portuguese and a little bit of English. The lesson went really well because we took the new Portuguese member that got baptized two Sundays ago. We saw him again yesterday (Dec. 29th) and taught him The Plan of Salvation using cards that you can lay out on the table. He loved it and long story short, he has a baptismal date for the 25 of January. I'm excited for him and look forward to hearing about his baptism. We picked up a few new investigators during the rest of the week, but now I'm in a different area. I don't know any of my new investigators yet, but I look forward to meeting them.

Travel went well. Elder Christensen is training now, so a brand new Scottish Elder took my place in Catford. They will do a great job. I went to the temple (where the mission home is) with him to pick up his new comp and to meet up with some Elders I would travel to my new area with. A lot of missionaries were around so we did a lot of talking and then some elders went to the visitors' center to watch the Joseph Smith video with a new member. I was waiting on them for my ride, so I went with my old Zone Leader, Elder King, to take people to the train station. On my way back I had my first driving experience in England!! It was pretty fun especially since it was a manual car. I have only driven a manual car once back home, and this time it was backwards!! haha. I did pretty well though and now have some encouragement to get my drivers license over here. One of my new Zone Leaders is named Elder Armstrong and is from Mesa. He went to Red Mountain. I talked to another Elder at the temple named Elder Barnwell who is from Mesa too. He went to Westwood. I actually met Elder Barnwell before my mission at ASU. He found out we got called to the same place and introduced himself at institute. I think I asked a long time ago, but I was wondering if Kyle ever served with or met an Elder Cusick while in Venezuela. There is one here, that is an AP now, who has an older brother that served there around the same time.

That’s about all I can think of to write about right now. I hope you all have an amazing week and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I love you.

Love
Elder Kade Karges

December 22nd

Dear Family,

Merry Christmas!!! It is good to hear that everything is well back home. We did sing at the Ward Christmas Party on Friday haha. It was just the four of us and we didn’t sound half bad. That is the second time I've done that on my mission now. Three other Elders and I sang on a Sunday in the MTC as well.

That was so nice of Sister Edwards to Email you. We were at their house for a DA and they decided to show us the video of the Angel Moroni being put on top of the temple. Elder Christensen asked to have it sent to his mom, so I did too. They are a good family. They are funny and very active. They are probably in their forties and have at least 3, maybe up to 5, children (13, 16, older). They served us a proper English meal. Potatoes, pea's, roast chicken, and Yorkshire pudding with gravy. It was good. It was one of my first English meals actually. We eat a lot of foods from other places

The rest of the week went well. I usually have my planner with me so I can remember the highlights, but I left it at the flat this time. The other two missionaries in Catford had a double baptism on Sunday morning. We have taught their investigators a couple of times so it was really cool to be a part of it. One was a Brazilian guy named Pedro, and the other is a Jamaican lady named Trudly-Ann. We had a white Christmas in London after all

I got the DeSpain’s package. Tell them thank you, thank you, thank you!!! And if I haven’t told you already,I got both of yours. The 12 days of Christmas have been great! I opened the boxing pens today haha I love you and thanks again.

I am holding Nesquick chocolate milk in my hand in the picture I just sent. Most of the pictures I have been sending come from other peoples cameras. I transfer them to my memory card. I’m still working on getting my own camera. The picture with the hat – it’s the hat you sent. I wore it around all day today. I took the picture with my camera, I just cant see what I’m taking the picture off. The screen doesn’t work, but I can guess where I am aiming and snap a picture to look at later

I just remembered that somebody asked if I had a certain English teacher at Hendrix Jr. High. I think I did have the teacher they mentioned and that’s cool to know she is using my papers as examples

We have all been getting sick lately. It hasn't hit me hard yet and hopefully it won't, but I definitely have a cold. Elder Call was down for a day or two and Elder Christensen was sick, but we only stayed in for half a day (I used the time to write a couple of last minute Christmas cards, I hope they get there in time). Everyone is gradually getting better. It has been affecting our investigators too. We went into this week and the next one hoping things would pick up because people would have more time, but kind of the opposite happened. People have been either sick or on holiday (vacation as we call it back home).

We are still working hard and enjoying the work. We hit a new record of finding this week for me. 29 hours!! The usual has been about 17 for me. It seemed to go by so fast though because we are having fun doing it. I am grateful for this Christmas season and feel very blessed. The ward has taken good care of us. We have dinner appointments lined up on either side of Christmas and possibly on Christmas Day. They have given quite a few cards and things as well. The biggest blessing I think is being a member of our family. I love you all so much and am so grateful for your support. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and I look forward to speaking to you on the phone!

Love Elder Karges
Ward members and the missionaries after church this Sunday. Joseph (recent RM: served in Ireland), me, Elder Christensen, Sam (Deaf member of the ward), Alex (18 year old ward mission leader), Elder Call, Elder Sorbonne

Our zone pday earlier today. We played sports and had a white elephant gift exchange in Wandsorth. People are holding their gifts.