August 29th email

Hey everyone!

WOW!

What a week!

To answer your questions, yes i am getting lots of Dearelders (thank you!) and yes i got my box of ties (thank you again!) also thank the Macs for everything they sent too! For future reference... no more candy for a while. PLEASE! I love the packages, specifically the jerky and crackers, but i am over my head in candy! And i am having problems with the food here as it is! lol

So... my week....

To start things off... and to let you feel a little of the nervous-extreme-pressure i have felt this week... my companion and i were called as the zone leaders this week. In the MTC that means we are in charge of our branch... i do not tell you this to boast or anything, i tell you this to give some idea of the overwhelming feelings i am feeling! We have a group of new missionaries arriving today, and i hope to have the same positive effect on them that Elders Biddulph and Leslie had on me. Speaking of that, i will send you his home address, but Elder Biddulph family are not members, missionaries came to his door when he was 16 and baptized him!

Guess who came yesterday for our devotional??!?! Elder Jeffrey R Holland!!! It was so amazing! In my letter i will share some quotes i got from him and his wife!

Besides that, everything here is going well. I am trying to pick up spanish, but more than anything i am trying to pick up the gospel and increase my testimony in it. Yesterday we went to the TRC, where we teach lessons to "investigators" we spent a while talking in spanish, and we taught the investigator how to pray in spanish! It was incredable! I could understand what he was saying, and then i bore my testimony on what he said and i was so confident. Next tuesday i teach the first lesson in spanish... completely! I am very overwhelmed, but in all honestly i am begining to love it here. OH! Ha last friday another district in my zone (the older district) were celebrating Christmas! Elder Richards (in my district) and i were asked to sing a few christmas hymns for them. Elder Richards sings like a angel, and it was so awesome! The spirit was so strong as we sang these songs in español!

Sister Holland talked about how we need to love and know Jesus Christ. Here testimony was so powerful. And basically what Brother Holland taught was that we need to convert ourselves first. To be able to teach with that power, we have to be absolutely sure. So my biggest goal for the next 4.5 weeks in the MTC is to gain love for the savior and for a strong testimony of His atonement. I need that more than anything else. With that testimony i can do anything. I want to be the miracle in peoples live, because i am so blessed, i want others to recieve these blessings.

Thanks for everything. More than anything thank you for giving me the oppurtunity to be out here. Thank you for all of your examples. Thank you for being willing to push through these next two years. It will be hard, but the blessings will make it so worth it. Read Luke 18:29-30 (i think) and then towards the end of Mark 10 it says the same thing, but more powerfully.

I challenge everyone in the family to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. I promise that if you read, and pray, your answer WILL come. Even if you have done it before, do it again. We can never do it enough.

Tell everyone that i love them. Tell nana to feel better, give her an extra hug and kiss. Thank everyone else for the love and support they have always given me.

I love you!

Have a great week!

Elder Kenck