Letter #10 11/26/12 A Pre-Christmas Miracle!!

Hello Family!! Well, first of all I missed you all at Thanksgiving this year. I miss gathering at Grandma's house and eating and then sharing what we're thankful for in the Big Room. So I miss you :) But things are FANTASTIC here in Southport :)

 

This week we had a TON of member support. We had a member at EVERY lesson. We also had a ton of lessons with our investigators!! The progress has been outstanding!! Lately we've only had about one investigator at sacrament meeting, which is A, the girl who can't get baptized yet without permission. But this week we had four!! Four people came to sacrament meeting, and enjoyed it. We also have three investigators with baptismal dates this week. So things are going well :)

 

As per Thanksgiving... It's a non-proselyting day. So we couldn't go out and teach or anything really, so we invited a couple of investigators to Thanksgiving at some members homes and that was really fun!! My Thanksgiving dinner was pretty delicious. I had a bacon-covered turkey!! Oh buddy, it was so good. And the rolls, and dressing were great. There was sweet potato pie, and deviled eggs. It was pretty good :) Dessert was amazing, too. There was this pie that basically had a brownie for filling. So good!! We also had a chocolate silk sort of thing with a ton of whipped cream. Super good :)

 

On to the miracles... SO. Like I was saying about A earlier.... Her parents gave her permission to be baptized!!! So she's set the date for January 19th for the time being, but it might be moved up depending on circumstances. In any case, I should be here for it :) I doubt I'll baptize her, but I'll be there for it! :D Next, we resolved a TON of concerns with K. She wants to be baptized, but the only thing holding her back now is approval from her grandparents. She wants them to know why she's being baptized, and she wants their blessing before she's baptized. So we're going to call the missionaries in her grandparent's area and have them give a couple of discussions. Maybe they'll be baptized too :) We had a super good lesson with her about church attendance. Her concern is that she was going to church for us, and she wanted to go to church for herself. We helped her understand that we go to church to obey the commandments, and we do it to make God happy. The spirit was super strong!! And she came to church on Sunday, to add to that success :)

 

All in all, this week has been fantastic!! We're continuing to work hard, we're being obedient, we're staying diligent, and everything is falling into place!! I feel so blessed to be here. I really do!! The work is really picking up now, and it just makes me excited and encourages me to work harder :)

 

Spritual note this week--- Continue to read "Beware of Pride!"  Alma 26 is amazing, as well!! :)

 

I love you all and miss you!! I was thinking about you over the holidays :) But I'm happy to be here!! I love you!! Have a wonderful week :) HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!

 

Love Elder Kameron Kilbourne

Letter #9 11/19/12 Improvement and Progression

Alright, so this week has been pretty amazing. We had a lot of member lessons, a lot of lessons in general, and some new investigators that we taught.

First off, this week I've been missing snow. But it's only fall here. The leaves are in the middle of changing, and boy is it a sight!! They're so pretty!! Single trees are red, orange, AND yellow. It's very pretty :) I'll try to send a picture. Anyway, one day, it was a little bit cold, and I had been missing snow because I"ve been hearing about snow back home. One day we get out of the car, and it's snowing!!! But not really. I just thought it was. The cotton plants are bloomig or something and there were a TON of those dandelion floaters around, so it completely looked like snow!! But it wasn't... So it was a little bit depressing. Haha I thought it was funny though, I was so excited!! Then I felt pretty dumb. Oh well :)

We met with a lot of investigators, and many are progressing. We had to drop the baptismal date with L because she didn't make it to Sacrament Meeting, but we saw her this morning, and we're going to see her Wednesday, so hopefully we can get on track. The highlight of this week might have been last night though. We met with D. He's about 40 or so, and he's married to a member in our Branch. D has been meeting with the missionaries for like 5 years now, and he just hasn't had a witness of the truth so he hasn't been baptized. What's funny though is he has a calling. He's the Cub Scout leader with his wife. He comes to church every Sunday. He's practically Mormon, but won't get baptized. Anyway, we finally taught him last night. We haven't been able to meet with him since I've been here, so it was the first time we taught him. Last night we were reteaching him the restoration, and we were talking about receiving answers and we were sort of evaluating how he was doing, and if he was working for an answer, and if he even had a desire to receive one. He said that he felt like he was in a boat, and he was rowing toward an island, and the island wasn't getting any closer and that sometimes he just needs to take a break. WELL. For some reason I felt like sharing the experience I had of kayaking the Napali Coast with Dad and Kaiti. I talked about how when we started, the tour guides told us that lunch was around the cliff on the horizon, and that it was about 9 miles away. I talked about how when we first started, we didn't quite know how to work the kayak, especially in a partnership. I told him how as we kayaked that it seemed like the cliff never got any closer. BUT I also talked about how there were two people in the kayak. That after the first mile we could work in combination and we started to figure it out. I talked about how the end never really got closer, but we could look back and see how far we've come. I talked about how I got really hungry before lunch, but it wouldn't work to stop. I had to push harder to make it to the lunch spot. I talked about how I would take breaks every once in a while because I got tired or sore, but when I did that, all the weight was on Dad, and we stopped going forward. I found out that when I worked through the tiredness, I sort of went numb or whatever and I could just keep going. Anyway, It completely corrolated to his situation. We asked him to look back and see how far he's come. And that made him think. Then I asked him about the cliff. I asked if he was hungry. He said "I'm starving!" to which I said, "Row faster!!"  :) :) Good stuff!! His wife was also with us, and she was sort of prodding him. She was talking about getting sealed in the temple and everything. You can tell she really wants him to join so they can seal their family... So she was an excellent addition :) By the end of the night we set a baptismal date with him for the 30th or 29th of December. I can't remember which is Saturday, but basically the end of the year. We're seeing them again on Saturday, which is a ways off but they honestly couldn't meet with us any sooner so we'll have to make do. Anyway, the lesson last night was pretty great :)

Funny side story on last night.... They have a girl about 4 named A. She's a little bossy, and it seems like her favorite phrase is "I'm the boss!!" It's really funny. This is my first time in their home, but Sister  said that A whispered in her ear and said "I like the new missionary's laugh!" Which is huge. She doesn't give compliments apparently :) I thought that was funny. A few minutes later, Elder Adams asked her if she like him, and she said "NO!!" So then I asked her if she liked me, and she looked at her mom, and whispered in her ear, and Sister  said "Yep! She likes you!!" Again, pretty funny. After that, Sister  asked her who her favorite person in the world is. Her mom said, "Is it me? Is it Big D (meaning Brother )?)" Then A whispered in her ear. Then Sister  was like, "Oh no, honey!! He can't be your favorite person. You just met him!!!" Bahaha I met this four year old last night and I'm already her favorite person. I thought it was hilarious :D

For the spiritual thought I'll challenge everyone to read their scriptures this week. We had a really good talk yesterday about that, and I want to challenge everyone reading to read for 5 minutes everyday this week!! Just 5 minutes. Not 5 pages, not 5 verses, not 5 chapters. 5 Minutes. You can spare the time, promise!! :) Let me know any neat stories you have if it helps!!

Well, time is running out. I'm not sure what else to say, but this week has been really great :) Mail has been a little backed up lately, so hopefully I get that package soon!! I'm looking forward to it :)

I love you all!! And miss you. It sounds like you're doing well though!! I'm completely jealous about Thanksgiving!! That was a fun holiday with the family :) It sounds like things are going well though, which makes me happy :)

Until next week, HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!

Love Elder Kameron Kilbourne

Letter #8 11/13/12 Beware of Pride

Hey Mom and Dad!!

 

Thanks for the update, I'm glad you're having fun in Park City :)

Glad we got a new wreath!! And yeah, Dad can be a whiner about that wreath sometimes ;) haha!

 

The Mr. Mac jacket has been just fine, so I"m not worried about sweaters yet... But it hasn't really gotten cold yet, so we'll see.

 

If the family wants to send presents, I could probably use some warm gloves and socks. When it has gotten cold, my fingers and toes are the first to feel it, but at this point it hasn't been too bad. Maybe it'll get worse, but gloves could be nice :) If not gloves and socks, ties are pretty great! Send me some cool ties with a note or something, and I'll love it, promise :)

Pride was something I really worked on this week. I found President Benson's "Beware of Pride" talk and I've been reading it pretty consistently. My goal is to read it twice a week and evaluate my decisions. I've realized how much my rebelliousness is due to pride, and how much it stops my progression. I loved your letter, and I loved the stories. They really do apply to me, and I think they both started with pride. SO. I've been working on pride. 

This week was great!!! Things are improving I'm working harder, and we can see the results. We set two baptismal dates, we have dinner almost every night in a member's home, people are giving us referrals like crazy. It's still hard because everyone is Baptist or Catholic so they don't really like Mormons. But things are getting tons better. Haha Also, Mom will be happy to know I'm eating well. Last Monday, we ate with a family in our branch, the Spencers, and they took us to Thai Peppers. I got Masuman Curry. DANG it was delicious. We love them. Here's the kicker though. We ate at their house last night as well. Guess what she made? CAFE RIO!! Boo ya!!!! The pork was SPOT ON. The dressing didn't have the same kick, but the meal was absolutely delicious. Also, I think Mom has been praying for me to eat fruit, because this week we were given like 5 cans of pineapple, two oranges, like 5 cans of chicken noodle soup and Tomato soup. She must have a lot of faith hahaha because her prayers are definitely answered....

The limited time of emailing is in the library. Library rules are an hour for each person. They're usually pretty nice about it, so I usually end up with about an hour and five minutes, but it's probably good. We probably shouldn't be too focused on home, but it's really nice to hear how everything is going :)

On the polls- What were the demographics? and the numbers? Obama won by like 3 million in the popular vote, right? I hear NC voted Romney by like 51-49 or something, is that right? And to be completely honest, it would have been nice to have Romney, but I think voting Obama just shows where the country is right now. Without getting too political, I think people are just too social liberal and accepting at the moment, and I think it's going to come back and bite us. I don't think Obama is a bad guy, but I DO think that him being elected shows how far away we are from the right path. Does that make sense? 

I love you, and I'm proud of you too :) Which I shouldn't say, because ALL pride is bad. Perhaps I should say I'm well pleased in you, but that's borderline blasphemy. Regardless, you get the point. I love you :)

Things have been looking up :) I've improved, the area is improving, and I have the good attitude. I'm being an arrow, Promise :)

 Let me know if you want something from Carolina :)

TWO BAPTISMAL DATES. :D :D

Love you!!

 

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love, Elder Kameron Kilbourne

Letter #7 11/05/12 Diligence!

Hey mom!! I AM eating well. Just so you know. But it's mostly the candy that prevents me from doing that :) haha I drink tons of water. And my cereal is loaded with vitamins. But if it makes you happy, I'll try to change my diet a little more :p  We didn't actually meet 3 investigators at Walmart. They were 3 less actives that we had been trying to get a hold of. Haha Didn't really work out too well, but oh well. Only one of them came to church on Sunday :/

 

Once again, the hurricane wasn't bad at all. Just a little rain. The hurricane's passed and we had a rainstorm last night that was about the same as when the hurricane was supposedly here... I love the rain though. It doesn't rain often in Utah, and here it rains like twice a week. I love the sound, the feel, the smell.. Ah just great. :) The lightning here is amazing too!!! I took a video but it might be a couple weeks before I send that home.

 

 This week was a bit of a drag. To be honest we weren't really willing to work hard this week. We didn't have any miles left on our car, because we had to save them for a 200 mile round trip for a training meeting Wednesday. And we didn't want to bike 10 miles to Southport, or 40 miles to Bolivia and Boiling Springs. So we spent most of the day trying to do area book. We've been struggling to get member support because people work so often. Especially during the day. Most of the people in the ward work at the nuclear factory near by and most of them have had to work overtime a lot the past 2 months. SO they've been working a lot, and they don't have time to come with us. So that's been a struggle... Plus, the priests in our branch are at school or busy with sports so they don't have time to come out with us either. It's been a struggle. SO, we have spent most of our time organizing the area book. And I feel pretty bad about that... Fortunately it's a new month, so we get new miles. But we're going to budget better so we can be effective the entire month. Yay!! It's been a bad week. I should have worked harder. Which I'm going to do!! I'll follow up with that next week.

 

Wednesday we had a training meeting with all the other elders and sisters that came into the field with me, with the President and the assistants. At one point, we went around the room and everyone shared their experience with the 12 week program. Everyone had these miracle stories about their use of the training program. I didn't... We read from it every morning, as well as 3 pages from the missionary handbook, and we use the extra hour of companionship study. But I haven't noticed any miracles like the rest of the new missionaries did. It was a bit discouraging, but I guess that just means I need to improve. Yay!! BUT I have a good attitude about it. I have a desire to work harder, and I'm going to. So again, I'll follow up about my improvement next week.

 

We DID have a new investigator come to church this week, which was neat. She's the hair stylist for a lady in our ward that lives in our apartment area. We're going to try to set up an appointment with her later this week to keep teaching her, but she said that she's really busy with school. So, we'll try hard with that.

 

Well I don't have too much more to say this week. This week was about improvement. About checking my progress and realizing there is more I could be doing. Oh, i forgot to mention my exchange... Well. I'm out of time, so I'll write home about that. Sorry!!

 

Spiritual message is on diligence-- Scriptures are Moroni 7:48 and D&C 50: 13-18. These show why missionaries MUST be diligent, as well as non missionaries. D&C89:18-21 shows the promised blessings of diligence. I know it's a short message but I'm out of time. haha  Just read the scriptures and get your own revelation from them :)

 

I'm out of time. But, I love you!! It sounds like everyone is doing well, and I'm glad to hear that. I'll be working harder this week, I'll let you know the results next week :) Keep me updated with life, and especially the election. I would prefer to know who wins, but which I will find out, but I doubt I'll get details. I wish the best for everyone!! You're all in my prayers!! LOVE YOU!!!

 

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!