Chuck's test drive--funny

OK lets be honest here, you probably cant sell the blazer, because
a. if you sell the blazer i would either have to go to BYUI with the
truck, or the porche. Now if i took the truck, i wouldnt be able to
afford gas, and lets face it, if i took the porche, girls would be
chasing me way more than normal, and so add the porche to being a
RM, high virtue points, (lol) an extra language, and my amazing
looks and charms, and lets face it all of the girls at BYUI would be
chasing me. THat potentially could get me in trouble, because i
really dont want to get hitched for at least a year or two... not to
mention all the guys in Rexburg would hate my guts and plan my
mysterious murder.

So in conclusion you can sell the blazer, but please think of the
eternal consequences that would be presented to your son.

Christmas Day

Dear Family members of Elder Monson, Elder Holmoe, Elder Russon, Elder Brinkerhoff, Elder Clements, Elder Allison, Elder Wright, Elder Wood, Elder Kenck, and Elder Rigby:

Today we spent Christmas day with your son! We met at our house this morning for an early breakfast and then drove to the Salvation Army Headquarters in downtown Mobile to help volunteer at their Annual Christmas meal for the homeless, low income and displaced members of the community.

The elder donned Santa hats and cafeteria trays and spent all morning serving food to the hundreds of people that showed up during our shift! They even gathered for an impromptu Christmas caroling sing-along which caught the eye of the Channel 5 News cameraman who showed up to document the day for the evening news.

We saw your sons talking to the many people who stopped them just to ask who they were and what they were doing in Mobile. We heard them talk to people about Jesus Christ and why they spend their days and nights teaching His gospel. There were lots of smiles and lots of hugs when we left. It was an amazing way to spend Christmas morning!

We hope you had a wonderful day today! We hope you know how much we love and appreciate the service your sons are giving to this area of Mobile! Please if there is anything we could ever do for you we hope you would not hesitate to contact us!

Enjoy your phone calls with your sons today! Thank you for sharing them with us here in Mobile, Alabama!

Love,

The Schloemer's

missed postings.... sorry....

December 8th
Hey

So this week was wonderful. We saw a lot of success here, and things are moving right along. We found quite a few new investigators this week, and we had a ton of investigators at church.
So we visited a family that lives up in Semmes. The dad and mom are Rogelio and Loida. They are good people. THey have quite a bit of potential. HE had a pulmonary infection a few weeks ago and got laid off, so they are in a bad situation right now. We are trying to help them.
Also this week we started teaching a lady named Nora. She is an old investgator of elders Anderson and Jones from Panama City beach, and she has TONS of potential. SHe also happens to live right below Leticia Rodriguez... which is pretty cool.
Elder RIgby is great. It has been really good for my progress that he is here, because now i am doing a lot of teaching and talking and my confidence in my spanish is growing quite a bit. He is also noticably progressing.
SO this last thursday we had what a would consider as the greatest zone conference ever. IT was SO amazing. Our spanish zone is something very special. We all know each other very well, because we have been together for all of our missions, and therefore we are very united. I had a wonderful interview with President, and he said a lot of things that i needed to hear. ALso, it was ELder Jones' last zone conference (probably at least) which was too bad, but we all witnessed some miraculous things... things way too sacred to be shared over email lines. Suffice it to say that my testimony was strengthened incredibly, just being part of what took place. Thats the understatement of the year.
I am amazed at the growth that happens to missionaries. I have contemplated a lot over this. I think it is a lot easier to see growth in others, verses growth in ourselves.. and as of late i have been placed around certain missionaries that i served with at the beginning of my mission... (Elders Allison, Holmoe, Russon, Jones, Clements and many more) and it amazes me the growth that has taken place in all of them. Maybe someday before or after i come home, i will realize some of the changes that have happened, but until that moment i will rest assured that growth is taking place, and i will see and i am currently grateful for it.

I love you mommy. THanks for everything. Have a wonderful week, know i love you. Thanks for everything

Love

Elder KEnck

December 1st

Hi mommy

Well this week was good. Kind of a tough week in a work sense. Well we worked hard, did a lot of tracking, etc, but we definately didnt see much success overall. We made a lot of contacts though, and i think we should have some success this week. It is tough here, because the hispanics are so spread out. It is tough to find them at this point, so hopefully we find some hidden neighborhood full of them or something... ok i doubt thatll happen! lol

So yesterday was pretty exciting. We had 30 miles left for the month yesterday... and for mobile that is nothing... heck it takes 15 to get to church and back to the apartment alone. So we planned on tracking around the church (on the bikes) right after church. It was good to be on a bike again (Martins refused to bike ) and honestly i think we didnt even see a single hispanic while tracking there. Right on our way back to church there was one more street left, and while riding down it i noticed the sign "dead end." and so we are riding down the street, and it is a lot bigger than i thought it was. We come around the corner and notice a big dog walking in the street about 100 yards away. Here in the south, especially in cruddy neighborhoods, dogs just roam free, and usually they are the normal pitbulls, etc. And this one looked like a German shepard. So then i got a phone call and while i was talking on the phone i noticed about 5 other dogs with that german shepard, and so after the call Elder Rigby and I talked about whether we should just blow by them on the bikes. Of course we decided it was a great idea, or at least it would be a great story to tell, and so we get a ton of speed going and fly off towards this pack of dogs. On the way, i noticed that one of them was a big, mean looking pitbull, (not a good observation) and so basically to sum the story up we almost got eaten by a pack of dogs. Like the pitbul almost caught Elder Rigby's foot. The best part of the story is that we then remembered that "dead end" sign, and so either we had to go back through the dogs, or we were giogn to call the other elders to come and save us. Instead, we found a sweet ATV trail that led through the back woods and to another street. It was SO MUCH fun. Ill send some pictures.

I am doing good though. I really am looking forward to this transfer. Because elder Rigby is still learning a lot of spanish, i think my spanish skills have doubled this week, just because now i end up doing most of the talking. I love spanish.

Well i gotta run, i hope you have a wonderful week and that you are happy and healthy and loving life.

love you and thanks for all you do for me.

Elder Kenck

Business as usual...

Halo papi
que tal?

WEll it certainly sounds like you had an interesting week. A big scary drive to ellensburg... bet that was exciting. So i guess that officially ups the number of spanish speakers in the family to 4 now, correct? Gav, Val, Me and Craig's new wife. I am all for that.

Anyways, life here is going good. We have some awesome investigators that we are teaching right now. Specifically Nora and her family, as well as william. Hopefully we can have a white christmas (with some baptismal dates) and so we will work hard for that. My comp is doign good. We get along just fine, im just trying to help his spanish improve, etc.

But yeah, that is life for now. I hope all is well for you and that you have a wonderful week, just think, a few more days and youll be free of those monsters! lol

love you

Elder Kenck

am so confused. The whole no snow, no cold, thing is totally in my head... even with the christmas lights, decorations etc, i think snow is an absolute requirement for me to feel like it is that time of year.

Well as for me, things in Mobile are good. We are working hard, this week was a little bit tougher, just finding people, etc. WE make a lot of contacts, but we didnt find as many new investigators as normal. THere arent too many hispanics here in mobile, so the fact of having 4 spanish missionaries here is amazing. The only problem is we are running out of places to go, and honestly i dont think there will be 4 missionaries here for long. Who knows though, right?

Anyways, besides that, everyone is doing good. Ivonne and Georgia are doing great, Ivonne is reading the BoM like crazy, and Georgia, well we are working on getting her to read, but she is 13. Their mom is incredible, honestly one of my favorite people, and amazingly this week we actually stopped by their house and sat down and talked with the husband, Enrique, who up to this point has been a GIANT jerk. It was good, we defiantely didnt talk anything gospel, in fact, i almost started into to something gospel related and the spirit literally told me to shut up. Funny experience. But we just joked around and chated for a while, and hopefully we sparked a friendship.

We are focusing a lot of our efforts on Nora. She is awesome! I think i have already told you about her, but she is a former investigator of Elders Anderson and Jonesy. And she was amazing then, but i think she is even more prepared now. She came to church yesterday, and i think she really liked it. What added more to our joy is that her husband, who up to this point has been very nice to us, but seemingly non-interested in anything gospel related, came to church. I think we will either try to set a baptismal date with her this week, or next week for sure. She is awesome.

Besides that all is well here. Good things are happening in the ward. And the english members are very suportive of the spanish work.

So the area here... lots of trees, cool trees as well, the trees are probably my favorite part of the south, because when the sun starts going down it lights up the trees, and it is a really cool effect. Besides that, im not a big fan of anything else. lol i dont mean to sound negative, but the south is DEFINATLY not what i expected, and not in a good way either. BUt thankfully, we get to focus our time and effort on the hispanic people, which are amazing.

But i am doing good. Working hard and tryign to do better everyday, which is the most important of all.

WEll i hope you have a wonderful week. ENjoy your last little bit of school, and i look forward not only to emailing you next week, but talking to you in 10 days!

Love you

ELder KEnck