October 12 update

We had another wonderful letter from Elder Kenison today. He is well and happy and doing great in Maipu. We were especially thrilled to get a whole series of new photos from him! These are the first pictures since he was transferred four weeks ago. It is always SO good to see his happy face, as well as read about the progress they are making.

Matt was not in Maipu this past Sunday (he was "on divisions" working in another area) but reported there were seven investigators in Church. Comments about one of them:

we are teaching a guy named Carlos haha he's cool. He's been listening to the missionaries for a while. Haha he's really cool. He actually said the other day (when i was on divisions with elder simons) that he wants to get baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy haha i barely know him but he's a cool guy. Lots of his family are members so he'll have good support haha pretty cool.

He had an interesting experience tracting with Elder Marquez on divisions. This occurred the day after they had changed to daylight savings time, losing an hour of sleep — he said they were exhausted, ready to quit early. But they persisted, visiting a member who was struggling a little. During the course of the conversation, they realized that this sister had concerns about the Word of Wisdom. Matt remembered that he had been impressed to put a pamphlet on that topic in his backpack that morning — something he rarely does. It turned out to be a real blessing to have that discussion with someone who needed it, and Matt felt inspiration in several aspects of what happened.

So now for some photos (click on any photo to view enlargement). These first two show Elder Kenison and his companion Elder Urbieta, who is from Argentina; they seem to be quite happy together:

There were a lot of food-themed photos in this batch. This is Matt with a plate full of food at a ward party; he commented, the black blob at the top was the only thing that i've had in chile that made me really want to throw up haha the rest was good. oh and my companion was... really happy haha. The second photo shows divisions with Elder Maldanado. haha eating toast haha

They enjoy their zone activities on p-day. Here they are, eating together in a Chinese restaurant:

Here's a shot of Matt having lunch with Elder Simmons (on divisions) and with two sister missionaries from their zone:

Finally, a photo with a story all its own.

these elders and i were sitting here waiting for our visa and then i noticed the white paper behind them. haha (translation... please do not sit in front of this door.) when i saw that i laughed and (being a kenison :D) took a picture haha

One very tender segment of his letter came when he was offering advice to a friend who will soon enter the MTC in Provo:

1. DO NOT TAKE THE MTC FOR GRANTED! You can save yourself SO much stress in the field if you just get it done there. Especially the language. Haha and also 2. hug your mom 1 more time before you leave. Just 1. and tell her you love her. Really i just ran off... "wow what's next" that right there is one of my biggest regrets. Just PLEASE before you walk around that wall and out the door MAKE SURE your mom knows you love her. Then after that devote every second to trying to learn something.

You can imagine how that #2 melted his mother's heart! He's a sweet boy.