Putting Down Roots

Laguna Niguel 

Hey! So ya, it's gone so crazy fast! It's incredible. The saying here is that the days are long and the weeks are short but the months are shorter! And it's so crazy how true that is. 

So our apartment is pretty tiny. It's a casita of a member. The address is confusing so I will try to tell you (so you can Google Earth it). We live on Bluebird Lane. and it's like the 2nd to last turn on the left - closest to the mountain. Then it's off this little drive way that is shared by 3 different homes. It's all the way at the end of the drive way and you can see a path that leads to our casita. It's kinda ghetto and we have to rig a bunch of things to make it work. But I love it! It's the only member house in all of our mission. 

Oh and just to give you an idea -- on average all of our mission housing is around $1500 a month. It's probably one of the most expensive missions in the world.  Getting around is a little annoying. The traffic here is crazy busy, the roads are super narrow and parking is the hardest, most aggravating thing in the whole world. Like, everytime we park we have to walk about a block usually to our appointments. But I still love it here. I want to put a down payment on a apartment and keep it till I leave the mission and come back and live here. 

On different note, our investigator and now turning into internigators which is basically means they are going to take awhile. But we have so many less active we are working on. This last Sunday we had 3 less actives show up! YAY!!! And we have a ton of youth nonmembers that are attending activities and things of that sort. We have this one girl that has given away 5 BoMs this last month to her friends at school and she brought a nonmember girl to church. We also are starting to have a representative of all the Young Mens and Womens groups attend our correlation meetings cause there are like 15 potentials in those groups. There are too many names to keep them all straight. 

We had a cool run in the other day. When we stopped at a gas station we were about to leave when Elder Hancock was like, "I need to get the receipt." So he ran in while I stayed in the car. After a few minutes I looked up and he was waving for me to come in. He was talking to a lady who was from St. George so I was way psyched! It turned out she was actually from Ivins and she was a convert to our church about 3 years ago and was moving into the Laguna Beach ward! Her name is Shannon. We are trying to get her info cause she seemed to be less active so we are pumped about getting to talk to her more. 

Also another cool story is Linda. We got a call like the day I got here from a lady named Sonya who lives on the east coast and is dying of cancer. She is a member and she is really worried about her cousin named Linda who lives in our area. So we have been calling her every Monday trying to get a hold of her. Last night we finally got a call from her. She feels that there is something missing in her life so we are going to meet her sometime this week. 

I will keep you updated! 

Love you all so much!

       Kye

Everything is Incredible!

Hey so I will try and answer everyones questions in this email. 

So we eat just about every night at a members house and it's awesome. Just about everyone we go to tells about someone they know who needs the gospel and they are trying to help them get it and ask us for help. 

I should probs let you know that when I came into this ward they took out the other sister missionaries. So we got all of their load of people and contacts plus our own. Instead of having 1 area book we have 3!!!! Ya it's pretty nutz. We have a list of about 20 people ranging from investigators, progressing, high potentials, and less actives and recent converts(commonly referred to as LARC's). It's crazy just how busy we are. And yes, me and my comp get along real well. It was kinda awkward at the beginning but it has come a long way! 

We are hoping to push 2 of our progressors towards setting dates for baptism this week, so that's pretty intense. Zach and Morgan are the children of Michele Perodot. They go back and forth between their dad and her. Michele is baptized but just recently. Last week though, Michele was given permission to have the kids on Wednesday as well and Michele is part of the young women's group. So Morgan has started to go (not baptized) and she loves it! The girls in the ward are incredible! They really make an effort to invite and make the girls feel welcome. Morgan has stated that she wants to start attending church and we will probs start teaching her soon. Zach is just rebellious at this point so we are trying to make a connection with him.

We didn't plan on it but we ended up watching the last quarter of the Super Bowl at Michelle's house, We figured that they weren't foot ball people but they were and we didn't want to be rude or any thing. That game was amazing! It was the most miraculous ending to and game I have ever seen.

On Sunday, me and Hancock were sitting in sacrament meeting and the bishop texted us and told us that we should bear our testimonies. So we did and it was incredible the feeling of love I had for the people. I just stared talking bout the scriptures and my own conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Both of our testimonies were just incredible and the feeling of the Spirit in the room was almost suffocating. Later we learned that an investigator from another ward who was being taught by some of the other missionaries felt that Spirit and told the lady she was with that she finally felt that she was ready to be baptized! It's incredible how the Spirit works! it made me think of a talk that was given in the MTC about "Minding the Gap". It's about how most people's spiritual expirences come when the missionaries that are teaching them aren't even around. That's exactly what happened.

To Sara and her missionary work of her own: Doesn't it feel amazing to bear your testimony of what is true? There have already been several occasions where people, mostly the homeless, try and figuratively shut down what we are doing and it's incredible just how much your testimony powers you through those experiences. I would suggest two things for you: 1) read the talk "Come and See" by David A. Bednar, it's about why we do what we do as missionaries and 2) give the talk "His Grace is Sufficient" to this guy with the smoking addiction. It can really help him out.

We have done a crap load of service this week -- like a ton! We got 12 hrs in 2 days. We should be averaging 10 a week. But the coolest experience was going to a homeless shelter and feeding them. It was incredible the amount of joy that brought to them and all I could think was how the gospel would help them. Also, as a plus there was this guy Larry, he is kinda like our best friend now. He just tells jokes all the time and he just busts up laughing everytime, we love him!

Well love you all so much!! and I will attach a few pics to make yall jealous! 

We've Got Missionary Spirit!

Hey! So ya, Laguna Beach is like the best place on earth. I could definitely see myself living here! 

I will give you the skinny on our ward. There are like 500 members but only 200-300 active which is not to bad. the most insane thing is the fact that a fair number of converts into the church come from the youth inviting in their friends. My mission pres told me I am in the most mission oriented ward -- probably in the whole church. In our ward council meeting I was shocked at how much the ward cares about helping bring back the less actives and fellowshipping the recent converts. Our ward mission leader, Brother Dunning is like the best human being ever!!! We sat down with him and just figured out the best way to help all of our investigators. 

We have 3 progressing investigators, Alexis, Don, Zach and Morgan (brother and sister to a recent convert, Michelle). Alexis is super close to being baptized. She reads the BOM a lot and loves it. She was a big Bible person and loves the plan of salvation. Our last lesson with her went amazing! She had a bit of a problem with the concept of there being a modern prophet cause she felt that it's scary having one person that we follow and not God. But we explained that even though the prophet is at the top of our church, Christ is still the leader. She went into the bishop's office this week and hopfully he will clear up any last fears that she has with being baptized.

Don will be baptized soon. He has a daughter who is dying of cancer and he is waiting for her to die before he goes through with it. He loves the church and he wants us to give his daughter a blessing....YIKES. Like that is going to be the hardest thing in the world, bless someone who knows that she is going to die.

And Zach and Morgan are a crazy long story.

My companion Elder Hancock is way cool. He is a very good teacher. I am his 5th trainee so he has been around the block. He's from Gilbert, Arizona and he is a huge ASU fan. Also he has been out for a year and a half. We don't do a whole lot of door to door but every now and then we go out and do street contacting which is scary and kinda fun. We meet so many cool people and we also get super shot down. So that just sucks.

Our apartment is a casita that one of the members owns and it is tiny. It's a one room kitchenette and bathroom place (it does have a fireplace so that's like awesome). But ya everything is going awesome. I am loving the work and am really enjoying reading the BoM. I am in Alma right now and it is awesome. I haven't had much time to take pictures but I will send some home next week. You will be blown away by the sunsets out here.

Well, till next week I love you all and keep praying for our investigators.

Some pics from the California Irvine Mission Facebook Page

Golden State of Mind

Hey! So I made it to Irvine -- it's amazing!!! I have already had my interview with the president and he is super awesome. I think he said I am to serve in the Laguna Niguel ward and that it is an awesome ward. 

We had a pretty warm welcome at the airport. There was about 15 people - from the presidency and a few elders and sisters. They love taking pictures of everything we do, including just sitting around. 

The best part about today is going to be the nap time they have set aside for us. Then around 4 we are going to have a transfer meeting where any missionary who is getting transferred or put into leadership attends. Also we will find out who our training companion is. 

They have posted a few pics already and there are more to come, also they have a few videos. But the people are amazingly nice and helpful. But I really want to go have my nap time right now so until next Monday this email will have to do and so will the pictures. 

Kye and the Mission President and his wife

Marking where he is from on the mission map

(Utah is in the bottom corner for some reason??)

Kye and his companion, Elder Hancock

MTC Happenings

It's so awesome that Virgil and Alice are back! It doesnt seem that long ago that they left. It's amazing how fast time is passing just being in the MTC. I, for the most part, can't tell  what day it is... the week is going by so fast! But I am LOVING IT! 

Me and Elder Oler got our new investigator on Monday. Her name is Carla. (When I talk to her I always wanna go, "DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU MESS WITH THE WARRIOR!") She is a really nice lady from Indiana and is studying law at BYU. She was born and raised Muslim....ya its pretty tough. But she is getting paid to come and let us practice teaching her. What she doesn't know is that the Lord has presented her this oppertunity and we have answers to some of her problems. The thing That I didn't know is that Muslims believe that Christ was blown out of proportion by man to be the Son of God and that we don't need a savior. It's hard to teach her cause everything we do is centered around Him. But we continue to push forward in faith that something will finally click. 

We had an awesome lesson with her yesterday. We didn't prepare any gospel lesson but just decided to go by the spirit. She really opened up to us. She is feeling very alone cause she is black and she has never felt so out of place in Utah. She feels that no one cares about her. It's been two years since she has been here and has never been asked out on a date. So we just talked about life but at the end I just felt this extreme desire to tell her that we love her and that God and Jesus love her more than she can possibly imagine! I don't know if she felt the spirit but it was there! Just keep her in your prayers also.

It sounds like Kade is loving it. On my first day here I ran into a senior couple here and we got talking. He found out where I live and he just asked me, "Do you know Kade Derrick?" I was like ya he is one of my best friends! He turned out to be Kade's uncle and he is going to go to New Zealand. I talk to him a bunch here and he is super cool. 

          Well I've gotta go! Love you tons! 

Welcome to the MTC! Don't Drink the OJ.

Hey!

So this is my first official missionary email!!!! So far the MTC is AMAZING! Other than the food. I mean it's not bad but it just makes you extremely gassy and I learned real quick not to drink the orange juice (it's super high in fiber!). But other than that I love it here.

 My Companion is Elder Oler. He is a pretty cool dude from Canada and the other companionship in our dorm is cool too. We all know how to have fun but we still work really hard. 

The first day here we were put into a room with about 30 other sisters and elders and a guy came into the room as an investigator and we had to take turns talking to him and figure out his big concern and then teach him the gospel. I have never felt so unprepared in my life. A bunch of the people in the room would hear something the investigator was talking about and immediately just stand up and testify of what ever it is he said the problem is. They weren't looking for that so we have to learn to listen and ask questions to figure out what their deep questions are then testify or teach them about that. 

We had one lady that we just couldn't figure out... like 20 kids got up and bore amazing testimonies and she said thank you but asked if we were listening to her. All she wanted was to get a feeling not answers because she was firm in her beliefs in God but she has just lost trust in Him. So she just wanted to know that it was ok and that there was a way to gain His trust and He would gain hers. 

The spirit here is every where. People all over the place are just happy to be here. It's amazing to know that we all share the same belief and desire to serve God. It's already my favorite thing to do my personal and companion study. You will learn so much more when you are given a profile of an investigator and then turn to the scriptures with the intent to find something that will help them. 

On a less spiritual level, we had an interesting first night. Elder Spotten, who is in our room, set our alarm. When it went off I checked my clock to see what time it was and it said 3. I just figured I accidentally hit a button so I didnt think twice about it but after about 10 minutes Spotten looked at his clock and we finally realized what time it was. That made for a LONG second day. 

Today is our first PDay but it only lasted till about lunch then after that we are back in class. We have time to do our laundry and then write our emails. Oh ya, I forgot I was made our district leader. All that means is that I am in charge of some district meetings with our branch presidency and that I am in charge of getting our zone's mail. It's not too glamorous. 

Well that's about all that is happening. It's not too bad having a really strict schedule. It's kinda nice. We don't have to worry about using our time wisely cause we dont get much time to ourselves. Well I love you guys tons and am super happy to be out here. Thanks again and I LOVE YOU!!!!!  

Getting Set Apart & Heading to the MTC

Kye was set apart as a missionary on Tuesday night (Jan. 6th) by President Harris. 

Before he was set apart, President Harris had some really great advice and counsel for Kye. He told Kye that he hopes he will come back having learned two specific things. First, that he learns to understand and follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost. And second, that he develops a testimony of the gospel that will stand as a foundation for him for the rest of his life. 

President Harris also took the time to ask Kye what his vision is for his mission {and I really liked his answer, so I hope he's ok with me sharing!}. Kye said as he was looking through the Preach My Gospel manual he felt like all of the lessons are best learned and taught when working with families. So his vision for his mission is to help people develop and strengthen their families so they can better learn and have the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So great. 

He was set apart by President Harris. His dad, Bishop Terry and bro-in-law Dane were also in the circle. After he was set apart he got to officially see his missionary plaque go up on the wall! Yay!

Then the next morning he was headed up to Provo to the MTC! Mom and dad drove him up and said that he was just so excited to get there and get started. My mom said, "... And he's off! Kye was so ready to be at the MTC that it's hard to be sad! Yes, we're sad he's gone, but excited for new experiences awaiting him!"

As they were pulling up, they had two lines to choose from to drop Kye off from. They quickly decided on one and were glad they chose the line that they got to see Elder Chandler Martineau! Hopefully they get to see a little more of each other!

See you in two years Kye! Love you!