Dec. 9, 2013

The last few weeks have been filled with lots of activity for Kyle and his companions.  He decided that Thanksgiving wouldn't be the same without homemade rolls, so he decided to make them for some of the missionaries.  They have already decorated a tree in their apartment and are ready for Christmas as you can see from the pictures below.

Kyle also celebrated his 21st birthday yesterday and a family was so wonderful and helped him feel like he was at home with a cake and delicious lunch!  It was a great way to introduce his new companion to the wonderful people in Chile.

He is now serving as a district leader and is a trainer to a new missionary from Arizona.  They are having great success in finding people to teach and he feels it is in large part thanks to the spirit that his new companion has brought to the mission.  They had a recent visit from an area Seventy and he loved the message that he shared with them about the sacrament.  He reminded them that we take the sacrament each week "so that we might have his spirit to be with us."

He sends his love to all of you and was so grateful for your letters and birthday wishes!

Hope you enjoy some of his recent photos.

Nov. 18, 2013

Another great month for Kyle with many wonderful missionary experiences.  He loved listening to conference at the beginning of October and then this past week Elder and Sister Holland came to visit his mission and they were able to go and hear him speak. He made the comment that this was by far "the best talk ever!"  What a blessing it was to be able to be so close and be taught by one of the apostles.

A brief quote from one of his email's said:
"Sunday was a good day where we taught some lessons and I know that God is definitely helping us  out because the success we had this week was nothing that the three of us did...it was all God preparing people for us to teach!!  I know that we missionaries don't do anything!!  We are just the instruments in the hands of God."

Here are a few pictures from the last several weeks.

Doing a little service!

Loving all the baby kittens right now!

Lots of experiences with many different companions all month.

A P-day hike!

Oct. 7, 2013

Kyle continues to do well and is so happy!  Following is part of his recent email to us and a picture that he saw and he decided to try to draw it himself.  He asked us all to read D&C 88:84 ".....We know that the angels are always protecting us!!!"

This is in reference to many of the talks he heard from General Conference this weekend.
"Something that I liked a lot was how they always prayed for us missionaries and focused on telling everyone to share the gospel with all of their friends... soooo GET TO WORK! hahaaha But I really enjoyed all of it!! Sunday night we FINALLY found 2 new people to teach! After 3 weeks of not having any new people, our prayers have been answered and they're great!!!! It was a contact that we met a few days ago and normally they aren't there when they say they will be, but they were waiting for us! It was truly a miracle!! The best part is that President has been teaching us to always finish the first lesson with a prayer on our knees and have the head of the family do it.... we practiced what we learned and the father actually did it! We were so happy!! "

Sept. 17, 2013

Kyle's sent some fun pictures this week.  We hope you enjoy seeing what life is like as a missionary in Chile.  Enjoy!

A little house painting party!

Each missionary with their personal favorite dog!

Trying his hand at flying a kite:)

All dressed up for Independence Day

Sept. 2, 2013

I thought you might enjoy a clip from Kyle's email this week and a few more pictures.

Wednesday was the only day that we got to work in our area. But this day we worked SOO hard and saw miracle after miracle! I don't know how we did it but we taught a ton of lesson and just did a lot of stuff! It was the best! We had so much fun but came back to the house and basically died because we were so tired! It was a lot of fun though! 

So we had 3 baptisms in the ward and we started to fill up the baptisimal font and everything was going fine. At one point the batteries died in the calefont (Chilean water heater) so we couldn't get any hot watter. Luckily that day, the counselor from the stake presidency was there and he's in charge of fixing all the buildings in this area and he replaced them for us. Things were going well again but all of sudden we decided to go check on it and we found out that the flame went out and it was filling the font with freezing water! We didn't know what to do so we called the counselor agian and he came to check on it but couldn't figure things out. We went outside to check the gas and it was all good so it was another problem. I said to my companion, "we need to go and say a prayer, these baptisms need to happen today!" so we went back into a back room in the church and said a prayer asking for everything to be ok and for the counselor to figure out how to fix the calefont. AS SOON as we left the room we went and looked and the calefont started working. Right away we went back and said another prayer giving thanks for the miracle. We didn't want anything else bad to happen :) I knew miracles happen, but in the mission miracles can happen instantly. We realized that God is always listening to us and when it's for a good reason, such as helping 3 of his children enter the waters of baptism, he's going to do everything he can to help us out. It truly was a remarkable moment and testimony builder for me. 

Let's just say Sunday was a great day with the baptisms that we had!! I was SOOO happy! It was the greatest ever! Marcela told us that she just felt so good and felt a warmth inside of her that she couldn't explain! FINALLY!!  I realized that this is exactly what I'm here for and I love it!! 

P-Day at the Zoo

Special Baptism Day

August 5, 2013

Kyle is doing great and was recently made zone leader.  From what he tell us that means he oversees 24 other missionaries.  It sounds like it is keeping him busy which is good!

They had two baptisms this past week and he says they are such amazing young men.  He truly loves the people in Chile as you can see from his smile.

July 8, 2013

Kyle hit his half-way mark this week!  In some ways it doesn't seem like it has been a whole year and then in other ways it seems like forever!!!  He is doing well, but not exactly enjoying the cold weather.  It seems difficult to remember he is freezing when it has been so hot here at home.  Here are a few more pictures that he sent this week.

This is a young man that just left from the ward for his mission.

Kyle says he is going to be an awesome missionary!!!

He thought it was pretty sweet because this says:

"The Most Faithful!"

Another p-day bowling outing with his district!

He must be getting pretty good:)

July 1, 2013

Finally we have some pictures again from Kyle so we thought you would enjoy seeing some of the things he is doing.  It is the middle of winter there as you might be able to tell from his rain-soaked jacket and scarf:)  I thought I would include just a short part of his email today for you to hear firsthand how he is doing.

"Sunday this week was probably one of the best church meetings I've had in my mission for sure!!  It was awesome!  It was sweet because a guy just got back from his mission who served in Philadelphia and he gave his homecoming talk and finished his testimony in English (he didn't know a word before his mission) and after him a guy is leaving for his mission on Wednesday so he gave his farewell talk.  It was a real spiritual experience and it was an AWESOME meeting!!! I love this ward a lot!

Thanks so much for everything that all of you do for us missionaries.  We really do feel the prayers that are being sent over to us and I really do appreciate all the love.  Keep up the good work back at home and I'll do my best here.  I love all of you so much!  Keep the prayers coming please!!! Love you!!"

Trying his hand at making cement

Showing his creative side and getting ready for a ward activity

Beautiful P-day hike

Showing his care package from family back home

Winter rain storm.  Happy to be back inside.

June 21, 2013

So sorry it has been so long since I entered another post for Kyle!  Hopefully this will catch everyone up on what he has been doing and we will get back on a regular schedule.  Thank you so much for your love and emails and all you do to support him while he is away.  He loves you!

One of the highlights over the last few months was the opportunity to attend the temple in Chile.  They only get to go once a year so this was a pretty awesome experience for him.

 A little p-day fun!  I guess the bowling class he took at BYU must have paid off since he tells us he still comes in number 1:)  Still very humble!!!

This is a sample of what he might eat for lunch.  Hopefully it is only occasionally not every day!

There have been some wonderful baptisms and blessings for families over the last few months as well. One baptism almost had to be delayed due to a burst pipe that flooded the chapel but all turned out well.  I was unable to download the picture but trust me he worked hard to clean up the water damage.

He is doing well and still so happy in every email.  We certainly miss him close by, but are so grateful for what he is doing right now in his life.  What a blessing it is to our family!

March 25, 2013

This has been another great week for Kyle.  Transfers happened today but he is going to stay in the same area and with the same companion which all brought a great big "YES!" from him.  He loves the people he is working with and excited to have a little more time with them.

Last week the branch had a huge talent show and to thank all those that helped out he decided to try his hand at making Cinnamon and Orange rolls for them.  Pretty brave if you ask me, but he claims that they were awesome.  Here is a picture of him sharing the results.

He was also able to share his testimony with an investigator about the Plan of Salvation this week.  There was a moment where she shared a very tender experience in her life and Kyle and his companion were able to share our beliefs about children and their parents being reunited.  Here is a little excerpt from his letter about this teaching moment.

" It was a really neat experience because when I was talking to her about this, my Spanish seemed to be perfect just so that she could understand what I was saying... That's happened like 2 times in my mission and it's awesome when it does!"

He felt that the Spirit was truly able to touch her heart that day.

Here are a few more pictures of his week.