August 23 update

Elder Kenison had changes this week!  We still struggle with the terminology.  Missionaries used to get "transferred" periodically, but now they "have changes" — at least in Chile they do.  I wonder where that came from.

Elder Kenison is now serving in a city called Talagante, which is about 22 miles southwest of Santiago.  He's in the Esmeralda branch.  The map on the right column of this page shows the location of the new city within the mission (click on the small map for detail).

This image from Google Maps shows the Talagante area.  It's a little mountainous to the north, but the area in general is pretty rural and agricultural:

The area where Elder Kenison is working is towards the lower left of the above map.  In the one below, you can see the Church building where his branch meets on the left center, next to a green lawn; his "pension" (apartment) is on the vertical street that is in the lower right corner:

His new companion is Elder Carvajal.  When we first read that name today in one of the first email messages, we were sure he was a native; but it turns out he is from Salt Lake City.  He's been serving for about 21 months, and will go home after two more "changes" (in about 3 months).  We don't know yet the reason these two "senior comps" are together — Matt didn't give us much info.  He did say he's a straight up stud. haha what more is there to know. pretty much he's just awesome.  And then:

Elder Carvajal and I are both senior companions so lessons are really chill. we both talk in lessons and both teach it's really cool.

Here is a photo of the two companions:

Elder Kenison commented:

oh by the way you'll have to tell Elder (Spencer) Mecham. haha he trained both of us haha we call the trainer our dad (weird) and so in that sense elder Carvajal is my brother haha (but aren't everyone brothers and sisters haha) yeah whatever but you'll have to let him know.

This was the report of the first few days of work in the area: 

we've contacted and knocked lots of doors and we've just met LOT'S of people who ended up saying "yeah i was baptized a long time ago and i'm inactive now" so we'll be helping them get to church

He seemed quite optimistic about the branch they are working in:

church was great! i'm acutally in a branch now. haha i'm pretty glad to find out how one works it's a little different. but there were 67 people in church last sunday (in Las Industrias 65-70) so pretty much the same

One highlight of the week was a conference on Saturday with Elder Richard G. Scott. The meeting included all of the Santiago West and Rancagua missionaries.  Elder Kenison reported on this unexpected topic of the conference:

it was amazing. there were a couple practices and then Elder Scott talked about marrying a good girl. haha it was a little surprising. he said "this may be the only time that we meet in this life, so there is some adivice i'd like to give you" haha he then asked the elders what they thought a good date would be after the mission, one elder said go to see the temple outside, elder scott reminded him that it was the first date not the last haha.
some elder said that group dating is better and how we should always date in a group. elder scott said that that is really just like hanging out. he asked the sister missionaries their opinion on the topic of having a group date and every one of them said that they wouldn't like it. haha (the elder really got shot down haha but in an ok way)
    some elder said "elder scott you said in the liahona last year.... and you said.... and so that is what you said..." elder scott looks at the sister missionaries and says "would you like that" they said no. then he said that that had been said in a different context to a different group of people. haha
it was interesting it made me think. what do i really want in a wife. but amazingly i didn't get trunky at all. haha it was cool. he then had us promise that we should marry a girl who is... oh i forgot the word, haha i wrote it down. like really just example. the idea i got is. work hard and marry up. don't be lazy and settle for less. pretty cool meeting. haha

Three classic photos to conclude.  His description of this first one said:

I rested my feet and studied (mom please don´t get mad they already had a huge hole in them and i didn´t have any others like them so they were the only pair. haha)

These last two also convey a unique aspect of his personality:

the caption of this one is "Like MarLyn, I too have a hard time "describing how much I really love Nutella" haha (and don´t worry i did get the little bit left haha
Elder Balling then FALSELY accused me of eating HIS Nutella, but i told him i´m innocent haha he wouldn´t take my innocent face. I never figured out why. haha