New mailing address

The mission office for the Santiago West mission has moved. They were sharing office space with the Santiago East mission, but now have an office in Maipú, very near where Elder Kenison is serving! This is the new address for letters sent to Elder Kenison:

Elder Matthew Kenison
Misión Santiago Chile Oeste
Correos, Casilla 149
Chacabuco 166
Maipú
Chile

By the way — Elder Kenison would LOVE to get letters!!

"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." (Proverbs 25:25)

January 25 update

Elder Kenison celebrated his 20th birthday on January 14. We missed him even more on that day, and hoped he was staying cheerful and knowing of our love! Mom sent him an American cake mix, so he was able to bake himself a cake; we got some photos this week:


In addition, when he went to lunch, he was surprised and happy to celebrate "cumpleanos with famila Gonzalez."


We hope all these treats aren't contributing to his cavities! He told us, "I'm probably the only missionary that flosses everyday. Haha because floss here (for like a little roll) is 4 bucks. Luckily i'm still liven off the floss from the MTC haha." He's still trying to work out all the details to get those four cavities filled.

Meanwhile, he continues to work hard. We asked about his investigators:

well there's Valerie and Fabiola. Haha they came to church yesterday!!!!! Haha it's actually kinda funny. Valerie and Fabiola are sisters. (Valerie is 19 and Fabiola is 15) their mom and dad are both members BUT they have been inactive for OVER 10 years!!! And the mom and the daughters came to church!!! The dad in working in southern chile but will be coming home this week so we'll probably be able to see him soon. :D but yeah that was the top news for this week :D

In addition, Elder Kenison and Elder Alonzo are working with a "member" who was apparently never baptized.

Well... haha i think i talked about this. We found out that a member in our ward was never baptized. So he's not really a member. And... yeah. He's blessed the sacrament and everything. So... my goal is to resolve this whole problem. We talked to President Jones and he said that we need to baptize him ASAP! He has a fetcha now for the 3rd of February. One interesting thing is that he has a certificate from seminary. He graduated from seminary and everything. Haha so when elder Alonzo and I passed by to 'teach' him the lesson of the Restoration. He already knew everything. For example

Us: Yubomir who is Joseph Smith? Do you remember his story.

Yubomir: Joseph Smith was a young boy who wanted to know which of the many churches was true. After studdying he prayed and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ told him that none of the Churches were true. Through him the Church of Jesus Christ was restored again on the earth. He also with the power of God, Translated a Ancient record into the Book of Mormon... etc... etc...

Haha afterwards elder Alonzo and i both made the comment. ''wow you're one of the smartest investigators i've ever had. Haha''

So that was really interesting. Also i just got a call from the office. Saying that they don't have a record for Yubomir's older sister (Scarlet) or younger Brother (hans)
So i guess my goal is to baptize all of the members. In a way. Kinda frustrating but... yeah.

And then one more potential:

we stopped also by for the Familia Toledo. The mother is also inactive and the Daughter (Carolina) is an investigator (by the way they're the ones who added me on facebook haha.) we had an awesome lesson with them. The mom. (Elizabeth) had a hard relationship with her Husband. So we've been trying to teach her that the scriptures can help. (by reading a couple it's been really cool)

Nice to have eager people to teach! We'll hope and pray for continuing progress with these families.

Finally, one other photo to share of the two missionaries — looks like they were taking a little break on a hot Chilean afternoon.

January 18 update

Elder Kenison turned TWENTY years old this past week! It sounds like the day didn't go by unrecognized. His Mom had sent him an American cake mix and frosting, so he could prepare his own celebration. But he also reports:

Haha we had lunch with Familia Gonzalez (they're a really good family) and when we passed by for a appointment with Valerie and her family they had a cake ready and started singing. Haha it was pretty cool.

Apparently Valerie and her sister Fabiola are children of a family the elders have just started working with. The parents have not been active in the Church for some time but are now progressing well, and the missionaries are teaching the two daughters.

Among the gifts he received:

A little stuffed monkey from Familia gonzalez. Haha Elder Aloonzo gave me a jar of nutella haha and yeah. I loved the ties. Haha and the cake was good :D thanks :D

He also celebrated the day by going to the dentist and discovering 4 cavities (how fun). He said the dentist's office was very clean and modern, just like back home — that was reassuring! Two of the cavities will be filled this week, and two next week.

Transfers occurred in the mission this week, and Matt was afraid he would be leaving. He really hoped to stay in his area with Elder Alonzo for another period; he felt they had some good momentum and prospects, and wanted to stay and see some of the fruits of that work. He reported:

Haha i don't have changes. Haha WAHOO!!! And neither does Elder Alonzo. So we'll be companions for another 6 weeks :D

The email was short and there were no new photos today. But here's one from last week:

January 12 update

We had two days of email this week! On Monday, Elder Kenison was online for a short time to answer a couple of questions and then inform us that he had an activity for the rest of the day and had permission to write more on Tuesday. So we were doubly-blessed to hear from him this week!

Elder Kenison and Elder Alonzo seem to really get along well, and are continuing to work hard in Maipú. Things are looking up:

we've gotten some new investigators. And we've been able to stop by to see several people. :D it's been a crazy but we're starting to teach more and more people as they're starting to come home from vacations :D so it's going good. :D

Transfers are coming next week, and there is a chance Elder Kenison will be moved; but he really hopes to stay longer with Elder Alonzo. We asked about his feelings about the transfer, or "changes" as they call them, and whether he was worried that he might be moved:

I'm not worried. I just don't want to. I mean change is always hard. But really it's like... elder Alonzo and I just have barely started to get to know everyone in our ward, ex: inactives, members, less actives etc... and i just don't want to leave and have elder Alonzo have to start that all over again. Haha but The Lord knows what's best so if I'm supposed to leave. I'll go. Haha (not that i have much of a choice haha)

We were also thrilled to get some nice photos. This one was labeled "wonderful P-day eating my peaches and cream. haha"


This one had the caption, "some of the houses in our area. (this is the rich part by the way haha. no really it is)"


Here are the two elders posing along a railroad track:

January 4 update

Elder Kenison seemed to enjoy his first South American Christmas. His summary of Chilean celebrations:

They had lights and stuff here the only difference is that it was really REALLY hot haha.

He has mentioned several times that he misses snow, and asked us to send him a photo of Utah snow so he wouldn't forget it. We sent him one that shows our front yard piled pretty deep, and told him that Dad misses his help in the job of shoveling!

The missionary work has been pretty challenging during the holiday season.

EVERYONE is gone. Or on vacation. Stuff like that. It's been crazy. Lots of knocking. haha
Well we found 12 new investigators this week :D but we haven't been able to pass by again yet. We have appointments with them this next week haha so hopefully it works out better

Matt mentioned in our Christmas phone call that he has a sore tooth. We encouraged him to see a dentist as soon as possible. We received an email this week from the mission secretary explaining the process and costs. But in his email, he said he had not been able to get an appointment yet. We hope he'll do that this week.

This photo might give an indication of part of the problem. It shows some of the candy he received in Christmas packages. No wonder he's getting cavities!! :)