October 25 update

The first thing Elder Kenison told us today was that he'd just received his "trunky papers" and needed information from us about his bishop's and stake president's contact information!  But if the trunky papers contained any detail about when he's returning, he didn't share it.  We're assuming he will be coming home in mid-March, just under 5 months from now.  We're not sure we're ready to start a countdown yet, so maybe it's best we don't know details for a bit!

Meanwhile, his companion, Elder Carvajal, is down to just two weeks before his return to SLC!  They will be doing some extra activities for the coming weeks on P-days.  Since the mission is pretty compact, departing missionaries are allowed to return to two of their previous areas to say goodbye to members and converts.  So Matt will have the chance to accompany his companion and learn a little more about areas of the mission he may not have served in!  And then he'll soon have a new companion.  He will miss Elder Carvajal; it sounds like they've enjoyed working together.

This was the report of the week:

as for the work and everything it started off kind of hard we prayed planned and worked our best. diligently too. and we had a miracle.

first it was at church, there were 6 less actives and actually in-actives that went to church. it was an awesome feeling. also we passed by a contact that we did. and it was amazing. the girls name is Funny (or Fanny, it's really a mix of the two) but we went with our Branch President so that we could go in the cita. and when we taught her about the restoration she said that she LOVES reading and that she'll read a lot. and then she asked if we have church meetings. we told her that they're every Sunday at 10. and she committed herself to go. haha my companion and i were amazed. and on top of that, like i said before, the Branch President was there so he got to have an awesome spiritual experience also. it was amazing.

Matt said he had some great photos to share today, but left his camera at the zone leaders' apartment.  Sad day!

I sometimes send him a few photos of us, or some other fun things I see here and there.  I sent this picture with the comment, "Sometimes you just don't know where to go in life."  Matt responded,

luckily god always does :D

Spoken like a true missionary!

At the end of our message to him today we wrote, "Do you know how much we love you and how often we think about you??"  Matt responded,

i can imagine i think. haha i love you too. but i do my best not to think about you too much. haha no offense haha but yeah I LOVE YOU :D

We're proud that he's doing his best to focus on the work!