July 27 update

We understand today's P-day was a little bit crazy for Elder Kenison; he didn't have much time to write. His companion, Elder Mecham, leaves for home next week, and apparently on their last P-day they are allowed to visit past areas to say goodbye to families and friends. So we think Matt got to have a little tour of the mission today with his comp! Next Monday, they will go together to Santiago, and Matt will drop off Elder Mecham and pick up his new comp. So we're not sure if we'll get much email next week either. But it will be an exciting time of change for Elder Kenison. I know he'll miss Elder Mecham a lot.

The photo shown here is Matt with one of the Latino missionaries, Elder Sornoza. He sent this picture to us last week; we didn't get any new pictures today. We're not completely sure about the two-finger salute we see in so many of these photos... we need to ask about that. (Maybe they just had a tie in a "rock-paper-scissors" game.)

We asked about his Gospel study — for example, does he read "Preach My Gospel" in English or in Spanish? This was the response:

i'm actually reading the Book of mormon and the Libro de mormon together. i'm actually starting to be able to hear what people are saying so soon i'll just be reading my libro de mormon. but i do study the spanish version (of PMG) a little. mostly the book of mormon though.

Nice to hear of progress in his language ability!

In other news, they have five new investigators to work with this week through tracting efforts. We'll hope something good comes of that! Their best investigator should be returning from a vacation soon, and they are hopeful to pick up where they left off.

Here's another typical Matt story. We asked if he saw many of the local people playing soccer.

yeah lots. haha when i was on divisions with elder marquez the ball came rolling down the hill. haha he went chasing after it for the kids it was hilarious haha mostly because elder marquez is a big guy but afterwards we got a good contact out of it with one of the kids parents haha

That's the spirit, Elder! Keep on working!

July 20 update

Missionary, you said? Does THAT look like a missionary?? Well, if you look close (click to enlarge), note that he DOES have his nametag on. So we assume he's still "anxiously engaged" in the work. They had another zone excursion to the beach on P-day, and Elder Kenison seems to really enjoy that (even though he can't go "ride the waves" like he used to).

Matt was sick earlier in the week, then his companion Elder Mecham was sick. So that slowed down their efforts. But they're both much improved (I'm sure the beach helped) and moving forward again. He commented:

I did go on divisions. Elder Mecham went to El Quisco, about 20 minutes away by bus. and Elder Butron came here haha he's an AWESOME elder haha he told me at the end of the night that I walk fast. haha I think i got it from walking with dad haha oh well... we got a lot done though :D thanks dad haha

Here are a few more thoughts he shared about the mission experience so far, to pass on to his friend who will be coming to the same mission later in the year:

Chile is the greatest haha crazy fast spanish though... haha but the people here are great!

some of the food here is interesting. you GET to have lunch with the members every day except p-day. and pretty much they feed you a TON!!! it's great (lunch is the main meal here not dinner). most of the time it's soup. they have a special soup with chicken (like a full chunk of chicken haha) and noddles and stuff. or you have beans and noodles. not a lot of rice but that's just the coast.

oh also the people here are EXTREMELY nice they try to give you Anything they can and most the time they barely have anything. and if you don't eat it they'll get offended sometimes most of the time they understand haha but you just tell them that you don't have time and call it good...

also get ready to see LOTS and LOTS of dogs haha they're everywhere it's crazy! and get stoked Chile is the best i couldn't imagine a better place to serve a mission it's awesome!

Those of you who remember Matt's love for chocolate chip cookies will be interested to know that he requested the recipe (he lost his copy) so he can make some for some members. They won't be quite the same, since he hasn't been able to find brown sugar. But I'm sure they'll enjoy Matt's special treat like so many others have!

One more photo of the whole gang on the beach:

July 13 update

As we've watched the weather forecast for Elder Kenison's area of Chile this week, it's been cool but sunny. Since we're in the peak of summer in Utah, we're expecting them to be approaching the peak of winter. The average temperature (daily high) was about 60° F, which didn't seem too bad. However, Matt reports "kinda a chilly wind though which makes it kind of cold." He also reported:

I've been kinda sick for the past two days. mostly just a bad cough and my throat is dry but i ate a grapefruit last night (which reminded me of grandma haha) but that helped. but i'm getting better luckily.

Elder Mecham, Matt's companion, has less than a month left in his mission. Matt will likely stay in the same area and get a new companion when Elder Mecham leaves. He reported that Elder Mecham is NOT getting "trunky" at all — "haha he's doing really good. and we're working hard haha."

Matt was excited to participate in a baptism this week, a young man named Luis who was taught by the other companionship living in his apartment. The best investigators he and Elder Mecham are teaching, a woman named Olga and her granddaughter Natalia, were sick this past weekend and had to miss church meetings (must be a lot of "stuff" going around Chile).

Finally, here's the "cultural insight" of the week:

also random fact about Chile. so before you take a picture you say "cheese" right. well i was curious if they said something different here. and they do they say "whiskey" which i'm sure with all the drinking here it makes some people smile. haha kinda crazy

July 6 update

Elder Kenison and his companions apparently celebrated the 4th of July with a successful baking experiment (thanks to a recipe from Alessandra):

well 4th of july was fun. haha all of the members when they saw us mentioned it. haha we actually made a cake. it was DELICIOUS!!! all thanks to Ale haha that was really fun. also we had a member come to church who hasn't been in about two years. that was awesome.

Matt's camera is still broken, and we were sad not to get any new photos. We have a new camera on the way to him, to help remedy this crisis!

The work continues somewhat slow in Cartagena, given the time of year and the exodus from the coastal resort town. However, he did have some positive news about new investigators:

well we have really what seems like a golden investigator. we were teaching an older lady named Olga. we taught her about twice. then on our next visit her grand daughter, natalia, joined. she has been following along and asking questions shes been doing really great. Yesterday we took a member along, kenna. And immediately they became best friends. It was kind of funny. The first time we met Natalia we had to tell her that we can't kiss on the cheek we just shake hands. So when Kenna came she didn't know when to do. So she asked kinda sticking out her hand. Haha Kenna knew when she meant and immediately said NO and gave her a big hug and the traditional kiss on the cheek it was funny.

So far, most of the investigators Matt and his companion are dealing with have been female. That's not necessarily a reflection of Matt's unusually good relationships with members of that gender; it's a common phenomenon in Latin countries. We'll hope he eventually finds some strong, complete families to teach!

Matt ended his weekly letter with this note — we really love how he has come to appreciate the scriptures more than ever:

Oh one more cool scripture :) D&C 64:33-34 :) oh and a i read 2 Nephi 29 earlier this week :) AWESOME! Haha the Book of Mormon is true!

June 29 update

Ah, happy Monday! We sure love these missionary updates! It sounds like things are going well. They have a new missionary in their apartment, Elder Rawlins from Texas. Matt likes him a lot. He and Elder Mecham are working hard in trying to help their investigators and strengthen the members. Matt commented, "We mostly work with inactives because we don't want to bring people into a ward where there is barely any support." Good point; missionaries do a lot of good in strengthening and helping existing members.

Here's a fun story from today's letter, written in Matt's unique style:

one quick story haha elder mecham and i were walking down the street and there was a drunk guy. he was a big guy and he was wearing an army uniform thing haha. so we tried to avoid him. but he started yelling "elders! elders!" and then he said something in spanish. we kept walking. he said it again "elders! elders!" but this time he sounded mad. so i stopped. i turned around. then i did what i usually do. i reached in my pocket and gave him a picture of Jesus Christ. and he kissed it then put it in his pocket. i then asked him "¿cree en Dios?" (do you believe in christ) he said "yeah". he then stuck out his hand so shake mine. instead of shaking I said "uno mas" then i reached in my bag. And then he jumped up and did a karate stance and said "karate!" i was hoping that he wouldn't hit me. Luckily he didn't. then i handed him one more thing. a 'palabra de sabiduria' pamphlet. (the word of wisdom) he said gracias and then shoved it in his pocket. then... he tried to shake my hand again. So i did. One thing you need to know is in chile when to guys greet eachother you shake hands then give a short hug. (about 90% of the time there are two pats on the back haha) and then you shake hands again. So he gave me a hug. But this time he tried to kiss me on the cheek. Awkward. Lukily he got my head because i sharted to push him away. So.. yeah i got my first kiss in chile. by a drunk man. sad. So... yeah kinda crazy. Haha

I teased Matt a little today. I usually tell him each week about people he knows who just received their calls, who is just leaving, and who is just coming home. I think he knew from previous weeks that his friend Sam Poulsen had completed his mission application. In my first email to Matt today, I wrote:

Can you believe Sam got his call in the mail on Wednesday, but waited to open it until Friday when his Mom and sisters came home from girls' camp? That must have killed him to wait that long!! But we understand it was worth the wait.

Then I went on to talk about other missionaries. He responded:

so did sam get his mission call. you never told me where he's going. wait is this Sam Poulsen I'm so confused haha

Then in a second email, I wrote:

What do you think of this: "Elder Sam Poulsen - you have been called to serve in the Chile Santiago West mission. You should report to the MTC on October 7, 2009."

Matt responded:

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He wrote a special message just for Sam which we will pass on to him. It will be pretty exciting to have these two guys in the same mission. I hope they serve in the same area or district at some point; it would be really wild if they were actually companions! Matt will be 7 months ahead of Sam.

June 22 update

Winter is beginning in the southern hemisphere, and Matt has commented that people seem to be leaving his coastal "resort town" to go to other areas. Attendance of members in Church meetings has declined. The weather is cooler and rainier, but Matt won't see snow in his mission. It's not that chilly in Chile (haha) except further south or high in the mountains. Here's an interesting story about how the "locals" deal with the cooler temperatures:

Apparently they have a weird myth here that EVERYONE believes haha if you drink something hot and then go outside when it's cold, your mouth with get crooked and you won't be able to fix it. Haha we keep knocking houses and people yell from through the window "¡mate!" and they point at their mouth. Saying that they're drinking something hot and don't want to come outside haha.

Among the highlights of the week was a special mission conference in Santiago with Elder Dallin H. Oaks. Matt reported the following:

It was awesome! He said lots of things that really helped. Something he really stressed on was "do your best and then give the rest to the lord." he repeated that several times. Haha i wish i could tell him thanks haha it was an amazing talk. All of the missionaries got to stand up and bump elbows with him (not shake hands because of the flu) when he began his talk he said "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 immediately become an apostle. I had to work for it." so that really helped me really want to become a missionary. Something really cool I remembered when I heard that was that was... when i first got here i asked a missionary (who now is leaving tomorrow) "when does the time start going by fast?" in the MTC they tell you "just make it till Sunday after Sunday everything goes by fast" but he didn't say anything like that. He said "it starts to go by once you truly give yourself to serving the Lord." I was suprised and actually have reflected that when I get trunky (miss home haha).

Matt is experiencing his first transfer this week. Fortunately, he and his companion Elder Mecham (whom he seems to really like) are staying together, but Elder McKay (one of the other companionship living in the same house) will be leaving. Matt really enjoys the other elders he works with.

Matt is having some trouble with his camera this week (already???) but did manage to get a photo or two — unfortunately, nothing showing him (we like seeing him in the photos!). Those who know him will appreciate his attraction for this particular setting.

June 15 update

We were a little sad not to get any photos today; we've been spoiled recently! The photo to the right is one I don't think I posted previously. It shows the group of missionaries who arrived in Chile with Matt on May 13, taken in front of the Santiago temple. Many of these were his companions or district in the MTC.

Matt really seems to enjoy his situation in Cartagena. He and Elder Mecham are living with another pair of missionaries, Elders McKay and Marquez. They all seem to get along great. They are speculating that one of the other companionship will be transferred in the upcoming "change" (6-week period). And then, Elder Mecham will be going home after the next "change." So there will definitely be some new experiences in the future!

Here was one comment on the status of the work (in his inimitable style):

something was wrong with this week and barely anyone was home for example when i first got here there were about 85 people in church this week there were... 30 so everyone is gone for some reason but hopfully they'll be coming back this next week. we have talked to a less active member though his name is aldo. his brother is actually in the stake presidency. (1st counselor the best calling ever right dad haha) anyways so for some unknown reason to me aldo stopped going to church. so we invited him back (haha more as a joke to see what he would say) and he said he would like to! i was suprised. everytime we walked by his house (he fixes furniture so he's always outside) we'd remind him about church. we had a sita (date) set to visit him on saturday. so we did and he said he had a lot of work to do but that he was going to get up early so he could maybe go to church. when we went to pick him up the next day... he wasn't there. his son said that he went to go to a mechanical shop to buy some things

Missionaries have to deal with that kind of disappointment a lot. Someone seems to be sincere and progressing, and you get your hopes up; but then all too often, you're disappointed when they don't follow through. But it's worth the wait for the times when someone does follow through!

Then this additional note:

on a happier note. one of our favorite people to visit is a recent convert. Fresia. haha she's really nice. her daughter isn't a member but she often sits in for some of the lessons. we visited her yesterday and we taught a lesson. elder mecham has been teaching them how to remember the ten commandments with hand movement things. haha he always shows them one per visit. haha but this time Fresia's daughter, Marcela wanted to see two. Elder Mecham agreed to. IF she came to church. haha she promised that she would. so we'll see how that turns out. hopefully good.