March 11 - HUMP DAY!!

Elder Kenison entered the MTC on March 11, 2009 — so he has been gone for a whole year now! And in "missionary lingo" he is celebrating "hump day" — the midway point of his mission. It's all downhill from here!!

We asked him recently how he felt about approaching the halfway point of his mission, and what he thought he had done well so far.

yeah. spanish is coming GREAT!!! haha and Elder Alonzo is FINALLY showing intrest in english. haha so two goals accomphlished. haha but i'm excited for my next year of my mission. because i'll kinda know what i'm doing and i'll just get to work :D WOOT!!!!

And as for his goals or plans for the second half of his mission:

i want to become a missionary :D because i feel like i have yet to become one.

That remark comes some counsel given by Elder Oaks when he visited the mission back in June. Matt reported that Elder Oaks taught them:

"Today i only bumped elbows with a few missionaries. I did with everyone in here but i can tell that some of you still aren't missionaries. If you're green (new) that's a different story. Haha it's not really a bad thing to not be a missionary if you're green. When I was ordained an apostle I didn't immediatly become an apostle. I had to work for it." so that really helped me really want to become a missionary.

We're sure that Elder Kenison will be a missionary, and a very good missionary, in the second half of his mission.

To celebrate the "Hump Day," Chile responded with another round of earthquakes. These were probably still aftershocks of the February 27 quake (magnitude 8.8), but they were the strongest ones yet — a 7.2 shock occurred at about 11:39 a.m. Chile time, located about 92 miles SW of Santiago (compared to 197 miles SW for the big one). We suspect the missionaries felt this one pretty good! It was followed in quick succession by a couple of slightly smaller aftershocks.

In the attached "ShakeMap" image (click to enlarge), Santiago is just outside the yellow area on the upper right. But we don't know for sure where Matt is now — he was transferred on Tuesday. His mission extends well down into the yellow areas, where the "perceived shaking" would be rated "strong."

So, the adventure continues! We'll hope that Chile soon quiets down and lets the missionaries get back to work.