July 26 update

It was "one of those weeks" for Elder Kenison and Elder Balling.  Unfortunately, Matt's companion was sick most of the week, so their activities were pretty curtailed.

we've been inside ALL WEEK. so not much working. we studied a lot and did a lot of stuff at home but not much tracting.

Based on our experience from last year, the winters in Santiago can be a challenge for the elders.  The colder temperatures, frequent rainfall, and other conditions often weaken their resistance.  Although, given the weather forecast for the coming week in the attached graphic, they should have a good chance to recover!

Some "investigator updates" from the few excursions they made:

we passed by for Carlos again and he wasn't there. his wife was though and we set a time to pass by. haha hopefully we can talk to both of them.
we passed by for Marianela and she wasn't there. :( we passed by with a member too. haha but we set another cita with her son so hopefully we can find her. or if not haha teach her son
well shirley was at church yesterday. haha :D she's officially active :D WOOT! Ulices has an almacen (little store) and so we've been passing by and buying bread at night. haha it's been the only time that we leave. haha

We wish Elder Balling a speedy recovery (Matt did say he's much better today), and a more productive week for the elders in Las Industrias!

July 19 update

We always ask Elder Kenison to share the best experience of the week.

umm... that's so hard to say... probably church. when LOTS of people came to church. not like a lot of people in general but just people who haven't been in a while. :D it was awesome! i'll tell more about them next week.

He did let us know that one of those who came was Luigi, whom he mentioned last week as one they really were working closely with.  They were very excited to see him in the meetings this week!  Or as Matt expresses it,

YES HE DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D HAHA it was amazing :D

We were pleased to get some nice photos that tell a little more about their experiences.  Here's a photo of Elder Kenison visiting a member — Hermana Elena.  When they arrive for a visit, she has the table set and according to Elder Kenison eventually served them about 10 sandwiches before they could get away.  Typical of the faithful members in Latin America!

Meanwhile, back at the apartment, this is what Matt fixes for himself for lunch.  On the left is a concoction affectionally called "Ale Ramen" in honor of Matt's "Brazilian sister" who taught him to make this flavorful noodle dish.  On the right is a kind of "smoothie":

yogurt, milk, a banana, and an apple blended together. haha YUM haha

Elder Kenison and Elder Balling have worked in their spare time to clean up and improve their "pension" or apartment.

this room has no window and before it didn't have light. haha it's really small, which is perfect for studying in the morning because it's easy for the heater to make it really warm really fast haha.  (p.s. i cheated and cleaned my side before the picture.) also we call it our "chilean room" note the flag on the ceiling

They also did some work in the bathroom.

the shower head that we used to not have. haha there was just a hole in the wall. haha and the hot water thing doesn't work. haha now it does. haha all thanks to an hermano (brother) in our ward to fixed it :D

Last week, we found out the address of the "pension" where Elder Kenison and Elder Balling are living in Las Industrias, and were able to locate it on Google Maps.  Here are some photos showing more detail - click to view enlargements.  The first is a view of the whole metropolitan area of Santiago; the little red "A" marks where they are working.

 This map shows the "sector" or area assigned to the elders:

And this closeup shows their actual street and apartment!  If we try hard, we can almost imagine seeing the missionaries walking down the street...

July 12 update

Our communication from Elder Kenison was pretty brief this week.  Apparently they had a district soccer activity in the morning on P-day which took extra time.  It also made him forget his photo adaptor so we didn't get any new pictures.  :(

Some progress on investigators.  We asked about Mariela and got this response:

yeah we passed by and taught her and she said. "so what do my son and I have to do to get baptized?" haha we we surprised haha but we told her that she needs to come to church :D she didn't come yesterday but we have a "cita" to pass by with a member tomorrow :D

This was the rest of the summary of progress:

well we're working with A LOT of less actives. (well in-active members) because there aren't many members without calling in our ward and there is a huge need for more leaders. (like one to help us. haha) so hopefully we'll get some people active. recently we've been working a lot with a guy named Luigi. we've been trying to get him to church. he told us he'd come but he didn't :( we passed by and i asked him, "where were you at 10:00 this morning?" and he looked us straight in the face and said,"i´m sorry I was sleeping." he then commited to feel better. i could tell he didn't feel great but hopefuly he'll go :D all we did is say "hey, le quiero mucho amigo, no se precupe. estamos luchando con usted :D" hopefully things get better. :D

Meanwhile, one of the recent highlights relates to other recent converts:

well. last sunday i had the pleasure of having Gabriel give me the sacrament. haha and also hear that Ayram is the President for the Laurel class haha

Finally, we asked about Elder Balling — how are they alike, how are they different?

like me. well we both can't speak english. haha it's kind of funny. for differences. for Spanish my problem is grammar, for him it's pronunciation. haha but he's amazing at grammar and thanks to elder Tucto i'm "mas-o-menos" at pronunciation. but we've been helping each other out. one big difference is like our high school life. he was the guy who took 5 AP classes (and aced all the tests haha) and I... I regretfully, did only what i needed to or wanted to do. haha but because he took those classes he knows ALOT about like chemistry. haha needless to say i've learned a lot from, how bombs work, to why the moon stays where it is. haha (gravitacional lock) haha kinda crazy. haha

Glad they've been discussing such important matters!!

Since there were no photos this week, we'll share a previous one. Classic Matt creativity... (click to enlarge)

July 5 update

Sometimes "no news is good news." Elder Kenison's response when we asked if there were "changes" this week (transfers):

yes. and... i don't have changes :D WOOT!!!

He really likes Elder Balling and is delighted to stay together another six weeks in Las Industrias.  Their work is progressing slowly but surely.

The other big news of the week was the transition of leadership.  President Richard King and his wife Melinda arrived in Santiago to begin their three years of service.  We think the missionaries each had a very short interview with the new president.  This is what Matt wrote:

when i first met him. he walked in the door and starting, greeting everyone. and he came to me and stopped. and the FIRST thing he says to me was, "Elder Kenison, oh you're the one with the famous blog." haha i just said. "you know about that!" haha it made me laugh.

And then this is the rest of the information Matt was aware of:

he has a big family. 6 kids. and he worked at Novell i think. he lives right in Provo too. so hopefully i'll be able to attend his homecoming in 3 years. haha (that's looking ahead) but yeah he's a great guy. he has a daughter on a mission in, nebraska, michigan, one of those states. and his son just entered the MTC going to Orsorno Chile. haha pretty cool :D also he served his mission in Colombia, so he speaks spanish pretty well :D yeah haha

We got a series of fun photos without much explanation.  Elder Balling and Elder Kenison visited with a family for "Noche de Hogar" (Family Home Evening) with two recent converts.

we made Caca de Mono (monkey poo) or as they say in the states. No Bake Cookies. but i like the name monkey poo more :D haha

From the looks of the missionaries, they are enjoying each other's company and having a great time.

Finally, there is this classic photo of Elder Balling — who looks like he must fit in just fine with Elder Kenison!

June 28 update

Things are going well for Elder Kenison and Elder Balling! We enjoyed the new mission logo received this week; note the flagpole is actually the outline of the entire country of Chile, and other significant symbols are included. Very nice. (Click to enlarge.)

It's a time of transition in the mission. President and Sister Jones are completing their service and returning home this week, and a new president will arrive. They held a farewell mission conference, which gave the missionaries a chance to get together. Matt was quick to point out,

We had a final conference with President Jones :D it was sweet. haha it was a conference not a going-away party. :D i saw several people there. haha

Here's a photo showing some of his friends and acquaintances. Elder DeLong (in the center of the photo) is a distant cousin.

some of the elders i know. haha originally the picture was just with Elder DeLong but then some others joined. haha the one on the far right is from my [MTC] group. Elder Smith (good luck finding his parents mom. haha) and elder mills. he's from Las Vegas. haha and on the far left. Elder Keogh (something like that) he's from Scotland. haha

And one more showing Elder Poulsen, Matt's buddy and neighbor from Orem:


One thing we were pleased to hear was that Elder Kenison really hopes he's not going to be transferred next week (the next time scheduled for "changes" which occur every 6 weeks) — he's loving his work with Elder Balling, got the apartment cleaned up and organized, and feels there is still plenty they can do together in their current area. It's always great to hear that companions are "bonding" together!

This was a photo we didn't expect: Matt with his dentist and dental assistant! He apparently went back in this week for a checkup of his recent work, and for his companion to have some teeth looked at.


The big event of the past week was the baptism of their investigator Auram.

it was AWESOME!!! haha besides the fact that the Calafont (water heater) ran out of gas and we didn't notice right away. haha but it was still good. the water wasn't to bad. haha for me at least. but of course i wasn't the one who went all of the way under. haha the hardest part was remembering her name. Ayram Javiera Almuna Cabezas. haha pretty crazy. but yeah.

the baptism. haha it was amazing. Ayram and her mom were there. and her Grandparents, who before didn't even talk to us, were there, it was really nice :D Elder Balling gave a really nice talk about The Holy Ghost. so overall it was a really nice baptism. :D

June 22 update

We waited all day Monday for our customary email, but nothing came. We worried a bit, but were delighted to receive the messages on Tuesday. Apparently the district had an activity at the zoo which is closed on Monday, so they postponed P-day. But visiting the zoo apparently inspires missionaries to strike poses like this:

In spite of the zoo experience, it seems the missionaries had a pretty good week. Their best investigator Ayram is scheduled for baptism this coming Sunday. She was a referral from a recent convert; but Matt observed,

:D now we just have to get that recent convert to church haha

He sent this photo of another young family he's been working with for a while. Wilson was an inactive member, and Debora has been very enthusiastic about the Gospel. They both are doing great now, but have a challenge with a divorce situation. They are making arrangements to be married in August, and Debora will then be able to be baptized!


He mentioned one other new investigator:

Marienela :D elder Tucto found her. but we passed by the other day and taught her the first lesson (the restoration, we had already taught her the second) and then we asked her if she would pray to know if it was true and she said. "well, i don't need to it just feels right, i feel like it's true. :D it just all makes sense. God had prophets before and he needs them now" :D it's awesome :D haha

Finally, this great story. This is one of the longest experiences Matt ever wrote; we really enjoyed it!

we were working the other day (yeah we do that alot haha wow i don't know why i started off like that) anyways. so we were passing by for references that we have from the ward and we passed by for a less active member. as we were looking for his house two women left from a house and then stopped us. they said "are you elders" we said "yes" they looked up in the air and said "oh thank you, thank you" (elder Balling and i got a little curious)

They invited us to go into a house. i've seen the house before and talked to a lady who was a member outside so we went in. when we walked in it smelled a LOT like smoke. we walk in and saw two guys sitting at the table. one big guy on the left (Julio) and one smaller guy on the right (Carlos).

When we walked in the big guy looked amazed. and he put his hands to his face and started crying. elder balling and i just stood there. one of the women that invited us in (probably Julio's wife) started patting him on the back and said, in a loving voice, "that's ok cry, just cry" he cried and cried. Then after a while. Carlos started talking he said. “wow, we were just talking about you. And here you are. This is Julio he is my best friend. And he’s going through a hard time.” He then told us that he was a member, he had the aaronic priesthood and Julio had the melchizedek priesthood and is actually a High Priest. But they’re been inactive for about 10 years.

After talking for a little more Julio stopped crying and asked us to give him a blessing. We gave the blessing and the spirit came into the room :D it was awesome! We then sat down and started talking. Julio and Carlos said that they were just talking about how they needed to go back to church. We talked to them and said, “ok, so what do you need to do to go back to church and feel the blessings that you did before?” they weren’t sure. So we pulled out the folleto (I don’t know the word in english haha pamphlet? ¿no?) The Word of Wisdom :D they looked at it for a little and then both dropped their heads. We read the blessings that come from following the word of wisdom and then we talked about it. They said. Wow we have a big problem with that. So we had them set a Goal. We asked “how many cigarettes are you smoking everyday?” “umm... about 20.” They replied. A little shocked we said. “ok can you set a goal, how many cigarrettes will you stop smoking from now, until Sunday?” Carlos looked at me and said, “Here’s how I look at it. If i needed to cut a dogs tail off I wouldn’t do it bit by bit but just once. Then it would be cut one time and heal one time.” “so...” we said. “that cigarrette that i had 5 minutes ago is my last” and with that he grabbed a boc of cigarrettes, (unopened) and crumpled it up in his hand and threw it in the trash. Haha. Elder Balling and I just looked and each other, stunned. Haha afterwards we shared a short lesson told them to keep going with the good intentions that they have and then we left.

Well, we saw Carlos a couple days ago, riding his bike (he actually came to us). And asked him how he was doing. He said. “i’m chewing so much gum.” Haha but in the three days before he hadn’t smoked a single cigarrette. :D Pretty cool :D haha as of right now i don’t know how they are doing. Haha but we have a cita with Carlos Tomorrow so hopefully everything is ok. Haha !vamos a ver¡ :D

What a great story! We were very proud of how Elder Kenison and Elder Balling handled the situation. They seemed to be very blessed.

Of course, like much of the world and especially South American countries, "World Cup Fever" is rocking Chile right now. The Chilean team won their first two games, but has to play a strong Spain team next (on Friday) and must at least tie to guarantee advancing to the next round. Matt said the country is crazy about the games. We asked if they had special instructions about their work around game times:

during the game no. but after yes. this friday we'll probably get instructions to stay in till 5. because there is A LOT of things that go on. a pizza place got broken into and stuff. kinda crazy. i don't get it. but yeah so we'll probably be staying inside. if they win.

Food was also a theme this week. These pictures show Elder Kenison digging into one of his favorite meals (a missionary staple), mac & cheese with hot dogs and ketchup. The second photo looks much better to us — a nice lemon meringue pie we think was given to the missionaries by a member!

One more photo. Since they are now entering winter in Santiago, the air pollution is picking up. Matt observed,

CAN YOU SEE WHAT I'M BREATHING!!!!

June 13 update

Elder Kenison has been serving for 15 months on his mission! Time continues to fly... Hard to believe there are only 9 months to go until he returns!! He continues to feel great joy in his service, and desires to grow and improve in his missionary duties.

We shared with Matt some of our experiences during this past week which were a bit challenging (a large stake youth activity in Wyoming that encountered some weather problems) but had a great final outcome. He responded with this reflection:

that's awesome! even though it was a hard trip I'm sure i would say it was a great success. i remember in the MTC when my companions and i taught a lesson and we thought it was HORRIBLE! (especially when it was given in Spanish) we were So disappointed. but then our teacher would ask us "how did this person come unto Christ" and then we would think about it and find some ways. so... applying that to the trip. i think that it was a success. because there may not have been the firesides and everything but there was still a lot of learning going on. and they still learned a lot. i'm sure almost all of the youth that went on the trek have much more respect for the Pioneers than they did before :D SWEET!!!

His best news of the week:

we have a fetcha with Ayram for her baptism!!! i mean AYRAM HAS A BAPTISMAL DATE :D HAHA

We also asked a little about the senior/junior companion situation, which Matt has been downplaying. He clarified the mission's approach, and his personal attitude — we loved this comment:

yeah our mission does [have the concept of a senior companion]. but elder balling and i kinda don't. really if there is a problem or opinion needed we BOTH work to fix it. but if a leader is correcting us for doing something (like... getting in late or something) then i would be responsable for it. but as for like teaching and deciding what to do with investigators. we work together. :D

As for whether he likes having a "gringo" as a companion for the first time in a long time, he commented:

yes and no. we try speaking mostly Spanish. but elder Balling is in that stage where he doesn't understand everything. but he's understanding more and more. so it's kind of hard to talk to him in spanish. but he's been a Baller and he's been really patient and trying to understand. haha he's a stud.

And do they speak Spanish or English when they're alone?

probably english because we're always telling each other stories about stuff. Elder Balling knows A LOT! about like chemistry and mathamatics. haha so i've just been asking random things. haha like "how does a bomb work?" haha

Bombs??? That's important for missionary work, right???

We didn't get any photos from Matt this week, but here are a couple that came recently that I never posted.

'dancing' with a dog. haha aquiles he likes to jump on you so i grabed his paws haha and as a joke started 'dancing' (you know i can't dance) and elder Tucto took a picture haha

And then this nice action photo...

service hahaha cleaning out a yard. SWEET