Hey family,

How are things over in the good ole USA? Things here are trudging along. I heard a good poem and thought I would share it with you all it is about prayer!!

PUSH

Pray

Until

Something

Happens

Living the Way we Pray

I knelt to pray when day was done

And prayed. O Lord, bless everyone

Lift from each heart the pain,

And let the sick be well again.

And then I woke one day,

And carelessly went on my way,

The whole day long I did not try

To wipe a tear from any eye.

I did not try to share the load

Of any brother on the road;

I did not even go to see

The sick man just next door to me

Yet once again when day was done

I prayed: O Lord, bless everyone

But as I prayed to my ear

There came a voice that whispered clear:

Pause, hypocrite, before you pray:

Whom have you tried to bless today?

God’s sweetest blessing always go

By hands that serve him here below.

And then I hid my face and cried:

Forgive me God for I have lied,

Let me but live another day.

And I will live the way I pray

I really like this poem, it is reality and it is something that most of us do in this life.

Nothing really too exciting this week. As you know, we have been suffering for new investigators so prayer is key. One of the days we were frying our brains trying to get new investigators so I just was praying please, just let someone talk to us. Low and behold, it worked. My first impression was great. I prayed and God sent me a drunk guy. At first I was a little ticked but then I started talking to this guy. Come to find out, he had attended church in Freetown and just never became a member because there were no missionaries to teach him. We also found out that this guy loves the bible and he even started his own church. He knew that his church of small 50 or so members was not a really true church. He knew in his heart that the LDS church was the only true church on the earth. He made it clear to us that he wants to join the church and leave his habits and even to try to get his old members to followhim to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was blown away. If we would have turned away from this guy because he smelled drunk we would have never had such an opportunity. We haven’t had a chance to meet him again but we will see what will come of it.

I heard a funny joke this week. This guy was talking to us about America, like people always do with me, and he is telling me that he has to get to America before he dies. Even if he dies immediately after he gets off of the plane. I looked at him and said why would you just want to die there? He says “America is only about 2 miles away from heaven while Africa is only about two miles away from hell. The road to heaven is much shorter from America”. I was laughing. It is amazing how bad people want to get there.

This week I met a guy from San Jose. He lived there for over 30 years and came here for a visit. Anyway, he was talking to me and he was happy I was a Lakers fan in Utah. We invited him to church and one of his children came and liked it so that’s cool. I am trying to think of excitement. But it just is not coming….

This makes about a month of no power and we're still getting water by hand. Oh well, 9 weeks to go, right? Yup, president called me this week and said he is making the arrangements for 30 days early!! So that’s good. Also, tell brother Cox thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I got his package. It was really nice of them to send that for me.

Things are great. Mission is good. Oh and my companion's first name is David. (I found out because he wrote it on a record haha). He really doesn’t like me but it's ok because I love him. If only I was not an American, things would probably be better between us. Lots of Africans here as missionaries just don’t like us Americans. They feel intimidated for one reason or another. I don’t know.

Well, I love you guys- have a great week!! Oh ya, a good scriptureespecially for me, Mormon 6:20 - sorrows don’t bring return….

Love ya - have a good week. And let everyone know I love them.

Love Elder Kev

Hey family

How are you guys today? As for me, I am doing good. Not too many complaints.

Holy smoke - it is so crazy that Hintze is home. I am pretty sure that we went more than 2 years without writing a single thing to each other. Man what a crappy friend I am. That goes for all of my friends that are on missions right now. I am sorry I haven’t written you, I do have a small excuse. I am in the jungle and it is hard to write since I have no light and I can’t just walk to the mail box and send them. I would love to write people more but it is just hard. So I am sorry friends and family. I do love you guys though. Anyway, all these people that are coming home, could you please tell them hello and that I love them.

As for my week, it was filled with patience and learning. When you think that you have exercised an extreme amount of patience that is probably when you are wrong. This week we had a practice for our Easter program. It went well except I don’t understand why nobody will take you seriously during practice. During our practice, it was as if I was in primary trying to get everyone to be quiet so that we could do something. So what we did was just embarrass them so that they would practice on their own, ha-ha. We knew no one had practiced on their own so we made them sing in front of everyone. It was amazing how much better they sounded the second practice.

So this week was rough with trying to find investigators. I feel like sometimes I am just walking around trying to get anyone to talk to me. I don’t think I would do well in a stateside mission. I would get too angry when no one wanted to hear what I had to say. So we hope that the Easter program will help and we can start getting some referrals, just in time for me to come home. It amazes me how things in one area can be so busy and then the next area it is terrible. So that is the work. We struggled to have 20 lessons this week. I know that is crazy for some people but we can normally have like 25 or 30 in a week.

So we got our generator back!! Yea - that means we can charge things again and plan in the light. But the rather unfortunate thing is that something died in our well. I think it is a lizard. I really don’t think that I am meant to have good water on my mission. If it is not one thing, it’s the next. Dad you are lucky on this one because the hole on the top of the well is too small for me to fit in or otherwise I would be down there getting out the dead animal that is in there. Also the well is really deep so I don’t really want to go in there. Someone is going to have to get this problem fixed so we can take a shower (or what we consider a shower). Another one of those sacrifices we make as missionaries here in Africa.

Today was good. We got a bunch of missionaries together and members and recent converts and had a soccer game. It is so awesome when we can go have a clean match, have a prayer and see our converts become friends with the branch. Also, we got a referral today in an area where we need investigators so I know that things are starting to pick up. Sorry if I am too negative all the time, I don’t try to be!! Also, another thing that made the match great was we won! Today was good and things are getting better. I don’t have much else to say. We have this guy his name is Chris and we just baptized him. He is so good and he is also very good at soccer. He won the golden boot. He is practically a national player but he wants to go on mission rather than go and play now. Another thing that I love about this guy is that he really respects his mom. That is something that is big for me.

I am grateful to be here and to serve. I love you guys have a great week.

Love Elder Kev

Another Week in Paradise!

Hey family!

How was the week? How is life? Things here are rough, but whatever, thus is life. If I was to tell you all that is going on you here would really either laugh or cry, I don’t know. Our area, as you know, needs a lot of work but that is not the biggest problem. Our zone is slowly falling into apostasy so as the new zone leaders, we are trying to stop that as fast as we can. It was kind of like the missionaries that we replaced didn’t care too much about what was going on. So lucky for us, we get to fix it. The biggest problem is my companion doesn’t really seem to care. It is hard because I am trying to love him and get to know him but he won't open up to me. I mean it is so crazy. I don’t even know his first name or his age or anything about him. But I have been trying to look for the good. This week I have been looking for things that I am grateful for and it always comes down to family. I am so grateful to have been raised in a home that has moral values with parents who love and care for me. Can't begin to tell you how much a child here would love to have their parent say I love you or I am proud of you. I don’t think that I have ever heard a parent here tell their child that they love them. It isn’t fair to the children here. I just wish that things could be different. I guess that is why we are here.

This week has been really busy. We are starting the planning of the Easter program. We are combining both of our zones so we have to work with the other zone leaders which is fun and nice because it is Elder Stott and Bennion. They are good guys so it is fun. It should be a good program. And another benefit about planning it is that I don’t have to sing a surprise solo or anything!

We had an awesome baptism this weekend. I really liked it… probably because it was huge! I love big baptisms. I think it really brings the spirit. It had to be like 30 people. Wow, it was fun. I wish I had taken pictures but, unfortunately, there is no way to charge my camera on account that our generator is broken and also no power from the power company. Anyway, it was great. We had a fun time rushing around fixing problems like filling the leaky font, meeting with the district president and other things, like trying to get the branch to stop hating our sisters. Man, sometimes I wonder about those sisters. The comments they make to people. I would be ticked too if I was in the branch. They make comments like "this food is for goats or this is for monkeys. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard such statements. I mean, in there defense, the food really is for goats but you don’t have to tell the people that. They are sharing all that they have when they give you food. That really hurt us because it loses the trust between missionaries and members. Which really sucks because, as it is, we are having enough problems trying to find people to teach.

 

 

One of our big focuses in our zone is to recognize the reality of the living Christ. It is something that I think can really help missionaries and other people outside of mission. As we realize that we have a living Savior, we can recognize the daily blessings that come into our lives. And when we see these blessings, we are happy. We know that someone is there to help us. Mission is great! Easy, most defiantly not! Every companionship is filled with love and sometimes hate trials, success and sometimes failure, good ideas and bad ideas. It is all about the attitude that we have during the experience. When life throws you lemons you can either suck the bitterness of the lemon or you can just make it sweet by adding sugar. Nothing comes easy in life. It always takes extra, it always takes a little more. Something that I have found is that the only time success comes before work is in the dictionary. The journey of a thousand miles always begins with the very first step. As most people know, in my mission, I have had to carry a fair share of trials but I don’t expect it to stop. When life gets to easy it means we are not learning from any trials and if we are not learning then what is our purpose in life? Everything is about our attitude. So I guess I need to put this out there. People keep asking me about the Sherissa thing, wanting to know if I am ok. Asking me why I am not complaining. The reason is because there is no reason to cry and there is no reason to look back. I just need to focus on what is ahead of me and not what is behind me. I am truly happy that she is happy. That is what I always wanted. For her to be happy. What kind of loser would I be if I didn’t want that. I know the Lord will work something out for me. My purpose right now is not to look for a wife but to bring families unto the gospel. To recognize that God is there and loves them. So thank you everyone for the concerns and the support. All is well in Africa.

Oh, I got the package today, finally. I haven’t really gone through it yet, I am really busy. I am trying to make sure lots of work gets done from generator repairs to the water pump installation and other things. Don’t worry, I will try to refrain from spending lots of time in the well. I love you guys have a great week!

 

 

Love Elder Kev

Hey family,

As you know, it has been another week. It was a long one for sure. Honestly, for the first time in my mission I sat down under a tree and did not know what to do. I was completely out of ideas. Every single person that I even knew in the area did not want to see us. On top of it, the people that I did not know, did not want to see us. It was the first time I had a "door" slammed in my face. So I just hung my head for a minute trying to get my brains to stop frying and I decided that I just needed to pray. Wow ~ that was a good idea. It was like someone turned on the fire inside of me and I got up and told my companion "let's go and find some people". So we did and the best part is we just went looking and the first person I decided to talk to will be getting baptized on March 31st as well as the second person that I met. Talk about inspired ~ it was cool! I don't know if you know, but the crap really hit the fan these last couple of weeks. Our generator is broken, our water pump is broken, me and my comp are new in the area so we had no investigators and, man, we are in the thick of dry season. So it is not easy but the church is true. We are having problems a little with the members liking the missionaries because of our sister missionaries. I just don't know what to do with them. They are prideful and the members hate it, which doesn't help us elders much. Anyway, we will try to work it out.

So the last week was a grind and it was long and filled with contacting and teaching trying to build a new area so sorry I don't really have much to say. The missionaries here are great. We went and played some football today and that was fun. It has been a while since I have played so it was fun to get my mind off things and go and have fun. Unfortunately, I am competitive so I got a little road rash and skinned up a little but it is not bad ~ just a flesh wound.

So this last week I decided that I need to step up the exercise a notch but I swear I can't lose weight. I have been running 3 miles every day and nothing happens. I am down to 225. I swear I just can't get it to go. I did surprise myself though. My African brother and I ran 4 miles in 28 min. I was impressed. It really helps that we are at sea level though. Anyway, that's about that.

My comp is a little guy and his name is Elder Essel. He is really quiet and he is from Ghana. Like so quiet that I don't even know anything about him. I don't even know how old he is. He is kind of stubborn but I will learn to love him. It's funny because he won't tell me his age or anything about him. He says it doesn't pertain to my salvation so I don't need to know. Sometimes it drives me nuts but mission has taught me to deal with all sorts of different things. I think that the whole girlfriend thing was good. If anything I am just a better person now because I choose to grow from it. I know God won't fail me. I just need to turn to Him. I pity the people who turn away from God in their times of trouble or when they curse Him for their trials. That's the time when we most need his help, in my opinion. So thanks for the support. I am good and all is well and my luggage is much lighter too since I have a whole lot less pictures in there now haha.

Have a great week. Remember always Christ loves you God loves you and there is no alternative to happiness except to love them back and to love others as God loves you.  Love ya all.

Love Elder Moss