January 31 update

We had a very short letter from Elder Kenison today, and soon discovered why:

Me voy! :( chuuuuta jaja. yeah I've got changes. It'll be interesting. President sent me an e-mail that said that "it should be an interesting change." I don't know what to think about that. haha I'm kind of nervous.

"I've got changes" in current lingo means "I'm being transferred" for us old timers.  So Elder Kenison will spend the last change (6-week period) of his mission in a mysterious new assignment.  We don't quite know what to make of the President's comment either!  And unfortunately, we won't find out the details until NEXT Monday!  So we'll have to be patient this week.

A further comment on his feelings about the change:

meh. Glad... sad... in the middle. I just want to stick with Elder Hassler for a change more. He's such a stud. haha He's like my brother. Definitaly someone I'll remember.

We're happy they've had such a good relationship for the past 12 weeks.  It was unfortunate that part of that time was spent taking turns being sick. But we hope their good friendship will be able to resume after the mission.

Meanwhile, updates on the work:  the appointment with Familia Salinas mentioned last week (to teach the Plan of Salvation lesson) won't take place until this Tuesday, so Matt will have to pass that one on to Elder Hassler.  And in other news:

We're working with a reference [referral] that we got from a member (the President's brother) and we've been teaching Jaqualin (no idea how to spell her name. haha) but she's been progressing really well

We assume that's the branch president's family member — should be a good opportunity!

We also asked him to review a typical morning schedule.

This week was all service meetings and service. But normally we get up 7:30 and do exercises (which are rather pathetic, normally just stretches), study for an hour as a companionship and one hour alone. Then language study for 30 minutes. But this week was rather different just service service and more service. We sanded down wood, painted and cleaned haha

Interesting!  He promised to send photos and more details about the service projects next week; that was all the time he had for today.

Six weeks from now, Elder Kenison will be completing his final interviews and saying goodbye to Chile!  Hard to believe!!  We hope and pray his final "change" will be a wonderful, successful, and joyful one.

Here are a couple of bonus photos (not recent, but certainly typical):