April 21, 2014

How are you all doing!? Don't you love Easter!? I love sacrament meeting on Easter! its always so inspiring! 

So this past week was so much better than the ones before! I tried a new thing to help me sleep better and it worked!! I have more energy than I think I have had for my whole mission! Its also a lot easier to be happy when you don't feel like you are going to fall asleep all the time! And the spirit is stronger too! Lets just say, I'm doing great!

I'm trying to think of something I learned this week that can help you all. My mind goes to a song Sister Jones turned on yesterday. I'm sure you've all heard it but if not, here... Its What Heaven Sees In You Its one that I've always loved because it reminds me that I not only want to find a wife that fits that but I need to be someone worthy of one of God's daughters. We are all His children and have a divine potential! We need to remember that and Stay strong! The song tells a message to the girls AND the guys! Stay clean and worthy! That is our challenge.

I love you all! Never give up! The only time we fail is when we stop trying!

Love, Kevin

April 14, 2014

Hey guys hows it going? How'd everyone like confirence? Wasn't it great! I suggest all of the girls watch the priesthood session too! Its amazing and I think alot of the talks apply to you guys too!

Its funny when you feel impressed to talk about the one thing you are struggling with huh? Like when you are asked to talk on tithing and thats the thing you haven't been doing. Well I want to talk real quick about enduring. I am coming to the end of my mission and I have always said I don't want to survive my mission I want to thrive! I want to end doing the best that I can, but as it comes closer it often feels much easier to just survive. Satan is pretty good at making us think the last few steps don't matter and we can just walk through the finish line rather than sprint. I haven't done sprints in a while but I know if you do that you MAY reach your P.G. (Personal Goal) but you will never reach your G.G. (God´s Goal) God knows what we can become but we can only make it if we keep going to the end! Sprint the last few steps! Don´t quit and you will go much faster than you ever thought possible!

Keep going guys! I love you all! I hope you have a great week! This gospel is true!

Love Kevin

April 7, 2014

I really don´t have a lot of time to write right now but I want to share with you one of my favorite things I learned from conference.We heard the talk by president monson where he said: Dare to be a mormon, dare to stand alone, dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known. Well while listening to a talk I wrote this down: Sometimes we may stand alone, but at least we are still standing!

I believe that with all my heart, we need to stand for what we believe and stand strong! I love this gospel with all my heart and I hope that I have defended it as I have been sreving the Lord, I know I can do better, but I hope I have done my part.

Stand fast guys! Stand strong! Don´t weaken just because the world says to! We are better than that! I love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Love Kevin

March 31, 2014

How is everyone doing? I had a great week, but I'll be honest things are a little hard here. I'm learning a lot but I am still struggling a lot as well, so I'm just hoping the learning is a little more than the struggling.

Guys I want you to remember, when we feel we are doing great and we feel like we have the spirit and we are on a "high" that is often when the devil comes in and pulls us down, he attacks as soon as we lower our defenses even a little. We need to make sure we never lower our defenses! Find the spirit in everything, search for a reason to be happy all the time because true joy is a form of the spirit. Stay strong and never let Satan pull you down. Stay humble at all times, if we are feeling great thank God for giving that feeling! Its a lot easier to stay at the top then to have to climb all the way back up!

Have a great week guys I love you!

Love Kevin

March 24, 2014

How are you all doing? Things going well? Is it getting warmer? Its started getting a little colder again but I don't think that will last too long, I hope not at least.

So I have been taking more picture so Iĺl add a few more at the end of the email, just so you know things are going pretty good and I think this week they will be great! We will have a training this week and then get out and work and Rauma and I have come up with a really good plan that I think will help us both!

Guys Iḿ not sure what to tell you this week, I have had both the best and the worst lessons of my mission this week and so Iḿ a little stuck between the two, all I know that I have learned is life just does not work without the spirit, I have no Idea hope other people do it because when I don have the spirit I can't function! I get angry at everything I feel depressed and down and I feel worthless! And I go without the spirit way too often! But I know what when I do have the spirit I am guided and my moth just works and says things that I don know where they come from but it just works! Life just works when we have the spirit, we don always know how but it does!

Remember that if we trust in the Lord his spirit will guide us in everything that we do and will teach us the things we need to know, ther is no worry because we know everything will come out right! Keep that in mind! I love you all and hope this week goes swimingly!

Love Kevin

March 17, 2014

How is everyone doing? I hope all is well in zion! Is it getting warmer? It got up to 20 degrees this week which is about 68 fahrenheit so it got pretty warm! 

Once again not a ton of time today but I want to talk to you about something that I think is very important. I sat in a lesson on Sunday that was about the natural man. Every commandment that has been given to us is given to teach us to control our bodies! Obveous ones like Chastity and the Word of Wisdom which keep us from addiction and other bad things as we sacrifice pleasure and instant gratification until we have erned them! then smaller things like Tithing (sacrificing money), Sabath day (sacrifice our weekend), even Fasting (sacrificing Food). As we sacrifice the things of the world we lean to control this body and become as the scriptures say "a saint". This is what we need to strive for! Sacrifice what we must so that we can learn to control our natural man and not have him control us!

This gospel is meant to help us make that and that is why it is so great (among other things!). I hope you all can take something from this and apply it somewhere in your life! I love you all This gospel is true!

Love Kevin

March 10, 2014

Dear Family, 

I reall don't have a lot of time another Elder is waiting for me to use the computer so I need to be quick! I hope you all are doing well! 

Things are going well here, I'm getting a little sick but I don't think it will last long so that will be good. We are getting our new apartment this week so we will be able to move in and not have to travel every day so that will be good!

So this week I got to teach and hear the plan of salvetion twice and it was a great experience because its something that we all know, we all know from begining to end the plan of god and could teach it using circles lines and a glove! But do we really understad or believe the things we teach!? I love the plan of salvation but I know there is so much I still don't understand its just become something that is always there And I never really understood it! We need to think about the things we believe and really make sure we understand it, maybe not completely but maybe a little more than lines and circles. 

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love Kevin

February 17, 2014

well, I stopped taking 2 tablets of melatonine and that has helped. I didn't know I was taking too much, but when I stopped I could actually get up in the morning so I think it is working.

 

I'm also getting a new companion, he is a really big kid like 6'5" so he's not small and he looks like he plays football but I don't think he does. Anyway he is coming to teach me how to be a missionary again! It will be nice. I don't have a lot to talk about this week, my week was just full of traveling all around so nothing really big to talk about.

 

Guys, I will tell you something, this last transfer I had a ver hard time, we didn't get a lot of work done and my realtionship with Elder Paur didnt go so great we were both lazy and we both needed to improve a lot, but I was too prideful to take correction from him and he know I wasn't very good and didn't want to take any from me. So I talked to president, I told him that I needed help becoming the missionary I was before the office. I needed someone to get me back into things so that I wasn't put with the challenge of helping train someone and learning at the same time. At first I was thinking president would say suck it up and just work. But he understood me and agreed that the office was hard and often took a lot from elders so he is giving me elder Rauma. My thought today is that we are not asked to do things on our own, we are allowed to ask for help. God knew that this life would be hard so he gave us other people to help us through. I made the descision that I would rather ask for help and get back on track then spend my last transfers figuring it out on my own. So remember that guys.

 

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

 

Love Kevin

February 10, 2014

I'm too tired right now so I won't be writing a email this week....

 

Love you, Kevin.

 

 

Just kidding! I am super tired but I will at least give you an update.

 

Transfers are next week and things might change, I'm not sure but the can. I am still in the other apartment and having to travel to and from my area everyday. I feel like I want to sleep 24/7 and when its time to go to work I have to fight to get moving. I hit my six month point this week which is strange, scary and exciting all in one. But I don't think about it too much.

 

So there is a young man in one of the wards in the netherlands and he has been a member for about  two years, his mother has seen such a great change in his life since becoming a member that she wants to learn more. We are now teaching her and we thing she is going to be baptized. My thought this week is you never know who is watching. When we live the gospel people can see something different with us and will want to know what it is. We need to live in a way that people will be able to recognize that light and will have a desire to gain it also. All we need to do is live the gospel! Keep going, Keep fighting and do your best and the Lord will bless you!

 

I love you all! Have a great week!

 

Love Kevin

February 3, 2014

So sleepy, we had to travel pretty far this morning so we had to get up and go so Iḿ pretty drained.

this past week has been hard. Work has been really slow and getting up and out the door has been a challenge. I had been running every day but recently I have just been too tired! Iḿ going to try that again because I need something to help me wake up in the morning. I will hit my 6 months left mark this week and I want to end with the best 6 months so far so I'm going to have to pick up the pace and do things right.

I hope you all are doing well, that you are all happy and having a good time. I need to be going but I want you to know that I love you all and I know that this gospel is true! I know that Jesus Christ lives and he has made it possible for us to return to our heavenly father! But we need to have faith in him and believe in him!

I love you all and I love this gospel!

Love Kevin

January 27, 2014

Hey guys, hows everyone doing?

 

This week has been very hard, I feel like sleeping doesn't do me any good and I wake up super tired every morning. Then we have to travel almost an hour to get to our city to work and then its a long day on our feet and another ride back to the place we are staying. Its really tough, but I'm getting through, fighing and doing what I am supposed to do. I get up on time as hard as it is, we go running and then have good studies. So I'm really hoping that things will get easier, but knowhing how the Lord works it probably won't lol. I'm glad I have learned that the Lord likes to push us and make the best out of us, it has gotten me through a lot of things on my mission and it will help me keep fighting till the end!

 

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

 

Love Kevin

December 28, 2013

Happy New Year!

How are all of you? It was great to talk to you all the other day! well at least most of you. Was your christmas good? I hope so, mine was really good. After Skyping we watched Verschrikkelijke Ikke 2! or in the common tongue "Despicable Me 2!! Woo! I laughed my head off! The first was better but I really liked it.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=910930409001

I want you all to watch that video that I linked, Its really good and I think it is very true, everyday is the beginning of the rest of our life, just because we didn't do so great last year or even yesterday doesn't mean we cant do better tomorrow. We all have the power to grow and become better. We just need the desire and the faith. Think of ways you can improve this year and make your life better!

I love you all and hope you have a great new years!

Love Kev

December 21, 2013

Dear Family, this will be short for the fact that I will be speaking to most of you in the next few days! But I want to tell you that I will be leaving the office in 3 weeks! President called in a new elder to take my place so I am training him and in three weeks will be returning to the normal work. I need all your help right now. I have been in the office for so long that I know that the transition back into normal missionary life will be difficult, so I need you guys to help me and pray for me, so that I will be able to get back into things without any problem. I will probably go in as a senior companion and have a younger missionary that needs some training and I need to be ready to help him so if you all could do that for me it would be nice. I love you all! You are all so great! Telling people about my family is one of the great joys that I find in life, I love it! We all have our own story and together it makes up one of the greatest family stories I know of! Our lives have been guided by the Lord from day one, and he has lead us through some trials, but now we can see them as joys! The Lord loves us! And if we are forgetting that maybe we need to test him a little, do what he asks and pray that you will see blessings, and if you do it with an open heart he WILL bless you. I love this gospel so much. I have 7 more months and still have tons to learn, but I am so excited to see that the Lord is going to teach me! Stay strong guys! Doubt not, Fear not!

Love, 

Kevin

December 7, 2013

Well, it was a Good Week. I'm super tired once again but its not too bad, we played soccer again this morning so that might be part of it. Elder Pimintel and I got out and did a little normal missionary work this week, we met with a less active member of the Branch and talked to him for a while, he is from Sudan and was Muslim then converted a few years ago and he has now been told that he has to go home to his country. He is from Darfur and their law says that if you convert to Christianity you will be killed, so if he goes back he will almost surely be killed. We are going to pray very hard that that does not happen. His name is Khalid.

So I'm a little frustrated right now, with everything that is going on and  hope you can forgive me but I am just going to leave a short thought today. Guys, I know that this gospel is true, wherever we are, whatever language we speak, the spirit is there and is guiding us, even if we are alone we still have the guidance of the spirit in our lives. I love this gospel so much because it allows us to leave our old sinful self behind and enter into a new clean life. Jesus Christ is our personal savior and he has suffered so we don't have to. Stay strong guys I love you all! Have a great week! 

Love,

Kevin

November 16, 2013

Hey guys! Hows it going!? 

I can't really think of what I did this week, but I know it was really good, nothing super special, just had a better spirit.

I don't have a ton of time this week, but we had a stake conference last week that was all about missionary work and how important it is for the missionaries and the members to work together. And I have been thinking about a conversation Kristi and I had a few weeks ago, we were talking about building up the courage to talk to people about the gospel, and I I have thought about it I realized that sharing the gospel is done in different was and is personal to each of us. Something that works for one person can be terrifying to another. Its our job to find our strengths and our talents and then find ways to share the gospel using those strengths.

There is a family in our branch that is very musically talented and they do "family concerts" where they all get together and play music. They begin and end with a prayer to make it a spiritual event then play. They decided they are going to invite some of their non-member friends to their concerts and share with them the joy they get from music! I have found out that I find it hard to just talk to people, but I do enjoy doing service, so I look for ways to serve people and then I am more comfortable doing missionary work. So I want you all to think of your strengths. You all have some, I have seen them. And think of ways to use those strengths so share the gospel. 

I love you all and I know this gospel is true with all my heart! Jesus is our Savior and we need to help others come tho that knowledge! Pray for strength and act on the impressions given!

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Kev

November 9, 2013

Hey guys,

How are you all doing? everyone getting ready for thanksgiving? Whats the plan? Anything fun happening?

So last week I asked you all to read 2 Nephi 24:7 which reads... "The whole earth is at rest and is quiet; they break forth into singing". And I asked you all to comment on it, and see if you could find out why I had you read this scripture. Well, Dad was the only one to do it and this is what he said: "...its quite and people are reflecting on where the world is and they start to rejoice.  Am I supposed to look back on my life and rejoice?" 

Dad found out exactly what he was supposed to, and not because he had the same thought as me. When I told you to read this scripture I had not even read it myself. I picked a random scripture to show that we can learn something from EVERY scripture. If Dad had the thought to look back on his life and rejoice then because that is a righteous though, it is from the spirit and is inspiration. Thank you Dad! When I read this scripture, I got a feeling of peace. It is talking about after Satan is cast down the world will be at rest, finally at peace, and then the joy of all those that followed Christ will be so great that they will all "break forth into singing!" I feel the same why when I overcome a trial. It is difficult but once it is done, I am at rest, and my joy is often so great that I need to jump up and down or show or even sing! The point is that God can teach us things from each and every verse that we read, if we are willing to listen, and act on the tings we learn. 

I love the scriptures so much, I would be so lost without them! I love you all and I miss you! I hope you have a great week that is full of the spirit!

Love,

Kevin

November 2, 2013 - Pictures

Dear Family, 

I will now comense the sending of awesome images. The first is of my desk, quite boring, yes, but it has legos and pictures of babies! (don't worry, I have the other babies around the room) 

Second is my companion, Elder Pimintel, hes an interesting fellow. Very commited though so its good.

And third is our newly designated Gratitude Door! (inspired by the one in the kitchen) 

We are going to a haloween party/get together tonight and I will try to send some pictures.

Loves!

Kev

November 2, 2013

Hey guys!

How are you all doing? I'm doing great! Thanks for asking. I'm a little tired though, I just got done playing soccer for two hours and I got drilled in the face! It wasn't very comfortable. I hope your week has gone well. How was halloween? Was it good? Any good costumes besides Brenna's and Shawn's? Guess what I was!! You'll never guess it so I will take pitty on you and just tell you.... are you ready? I was... wait for it..... a Missionary!!! Whoa! Isn't that so cool! I bet none of you can top that one. Haha

I want to bare my testimony about the scriptures, I was able to contemplate the life of Joseph Smith this week and everything that he did for God's kingdom, and I thing probably the greatest thing that he did was give us the Book of Mormon. Everytimg I read it I am convinced that there is no way it could be made up, I still remember the confusion I felt when I was sitting with Mom and Dad telling them that I didn't believe the church anymore and that Joseph Smith had made it all up. Its not possible, not logically or spiritually. A man with a 3rd grade education could never write something so simple and beautiful at the same time! And even more convincing is the spirit that comes from it, When I start reading, after a few verses I start to feel a change, a feeling of peace and joy comes over me! That book is true! Without a doubt in my mind, and those are the words of God that will bring us closer to Him and His son, Jesus Christ. The scriptures are changing me, especially 2 Nephi 24:7, that scripture taught me a lot. I want you all to read it and tell me what you learn, see if you can get something from it and then apply it in your life. This is a challenge and I want you all to do it!

I love this gospel, I love my Savior, and I love all of you! Stay strong and keep fighting! We are on the winning side!

Love, 

Kevin

October 26, 2013

Lol hey guys!

My week has been pretty crazy and I spent the whole day yesterday driving a car so my energy is pretty much gone. And I dont have a lot of time right now, so this one is going to be short.

I'm not sure if any of you noticed but I certainly did, that there has been a drop in the enthusiasm and spirit in my emails recently. I'm not sure what it was but I just felt different when I emailed, it wasn't as heartfelt. So if any of you noticed and even if you didn't I want to say I am sorry and that I will do better to share things that bring the spirit. 

This week I have been strongly touched by the idea that if we mess up we can always stand up again. I fall down a lot as all of us do, and I see others after they mess up they are able to miraculously come back stronger than ever but for me if I slip then it is basically the end of the world. For days I can feel like I am stuck in a hole with no way out. But that is not how it is supposed to work, the atonement is meant to help us get up, and it does not require a certain amount of guilt, sorrow or depression in order to be effective! The atonement has saved us and we do not need to beat ourselves up, we need to learn and grow from our mistakes and get back in the grove. When we fall down when ice skating we do not need to sit their till the ice melts into our pants before we get back up. I hope you all know this because as for me I often need a reminder.

I love you all and I love this gospel! I love our Savior, Jesus Christ! I am nothing without him and He as done so much for me that I can never repay Him. Stay strong guys! Keep going and when you slip, get back up!

Love,

Kevin

October 19, 2013

Its been a long week guys, and I feel pooped... but that might also be because I was playing soccer a few hours ago.

How was your week? Good? I hope so. My week had a lot going on, it was transfers but we only had 6 elders this time so not too bad. But we were able to go out and do some normal missionary work so that was cool. I think we will be doing more now that things are settling down. And we get to go to the temple this week!! Wooohoo yeah! I love it! I'm so excited!

So I don't know how many of you watched/read either of the talks I sent you last week. one from elder Dube and one from Brad Wilcox. I did't get any comments so I'll just have to talk to myself, but I want to talk about the of from Brad Wilcox. When I first listened to it his words just seemed to enter my soul which helped me know that wat he is saying is true. He says a lot of things one one of my favorites is that the Lord's grace is not meant to punish us or pay for our sins, but to change us, and make us better. To help us live a life more like christ. If you still haven's read this talk please take the time, it has joined Jefferey R Holland's Inconvenient Messiah as my favorite talks! I love it so much. I know this gospel is not meant to punish us, but to help us change and become more like christ. I love Jesus Christ so much, Through his grace we are saved, now its our choice, by the same power, to become changed.

Keep fighting guys, this battle is hard but we are on the winning side and will be forever!

I love you all! Doubt not, Fear not!

Love,

Kev