August 1, 2011

Soooo this is going to be a short one. I have a bunch of people I feel I need to write and a list of things to get off to my president. So i will get started with the nitty griddy.

 

This week went well. We didnt have an amazing "Edler Skeen and Elder Kitterman are tearing it up out there in their tiny pueblo" week like we have normally been having (just kidding, but seriously, thats what they say...) but still good, let me tell you why! We had interviews with pres, which went awesome as usual but took pretty much a whole day of teaching away from us, then we couldnt find a groove during the mid week. Finally started to pick up, especially when a recent convert in the branch named Efrain, who is 21, worked with us for a full day. He is preparing to serve to serve a mission, but still needs 6 more months in the church to hit a year, but he blows me away with how much he already knows about the gosel just through pure personal study. But throughout the day we were asking him if he had any friends or anybody we could visit. Well in the late afternoon an appointment fell, so he told us he had a friend close by he got to know through work a few years back. German, Efrains friend, is about 30 and lives with his wife and 3 kids, who arent actual his but their father left and know he takes care of them. We taought him and his family and he had a lot of issues with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, but we did our best to resolve them. We got him to go to church though, which almost never happens when we had only taught him 2 and so close to  Sunday, but he was interested. He and his son Jose came (his wife works everyday, blah). Well after the services, I asked how he liked it and he said it was good, but he didnt know if he was going to be home at all this week due to the fact that he will be in cancun searching for a job. Boo. I thought between the doubts and what he was telling us, he just wasnt interested. i told him we would come by anyways during the week to see whats up.

 

Later that day we were walking to an appointment, and he was sitting outside his wifes work, waiting for her to get off. He called us over and with more time we really talked to him about how he liked it. he said he loved it, and how everyone participated and it wasnt just a pastor preaching. He said he felt different there, but it was good. Then he lauchned into a dream he had the night before but hadnt told us anything. He said in the dream he was standing at the end of a long narrow pathway, and a little bit down the path there was two gys just standing there, waving to him to come on. He didnt know them,  but they were beckoning to him as if they knew him. So he went with them. After a while down the pathway, he arrived with them to a house and entered. When he entered the house, he felt his pockets fill with money and then he notice two pairs of brand new shoes to each side of him. It was a pair of converse and a pair of Addidas. Then he saw a man that was very drunk and wasnt looking too good, so he went to him and began telling him that he shouldnt drink because it only leads to unhappiness. That was pretty much the end of the dream, and he said he could remember everything so vividly, which doesnt usually happen. He said in the morning while we were all walking to church (we passed by for him and walked there together) he had felt the inpersion that we were the two guys. Sweet right?

 

So whats this tell you? That if you join the church your pockets will fill with money and you will get new pairs of shoes? With a little bit of faith anythings possible right?... Well not quite. He really will be in Cancun this week cause he has two job interviews, but he wants us to continue teaching his family and him whenever he gets back, and he is determined to go to church every week and find a way to get his wife to not work sundays (she wants to come too, so thats good).

 

In addition to mr dreamweaver, we had a surprise friend show to church. Its a friend of the hermano that lives right next to us, so after eating lunch with him and his friend he brought to church, we started talking to her. She lives in Tabasco, and is visiting her daughters that live in cancun. She really liked church and accepted to be baptized very easily. But I felt impressed to be baptized HERE, so i asked her if she would like to be baptized in our humble little branch where her daughters could be present, and she said that would be great. So she agreed to come out to us during the week a few times to take the discussions, and then after her third sunday she will be baptized here in the branch. Easy peezy lemon squeezy.

 

Well thats all I got this week! Things continue to be well out here in Mexico. In fact, it snowed the other day!!! Just kidding, its freaking hot

Love,

 

Elder Kitterman

July 25, 2011

Did anybody see where July went? I just had it right here and now its gone. I hate that...

 

Before I get started, happy one year to Elder Rod and Elder Willis! Whenever I would read that Andrew or Carlos completed another month, it always seemed like the next week or so I would be right there too, so i guess that means I will be completeing a year soon? I dont know... Time just baffles me here.

 

Well Hermana Nuñez, the sister that lives next to us with only one leg left for the state of mexico this week =( Now whos going to make me pancakes?... Her daughter is pregnant and about to have her baby so she went to go help her. So selfish if you ask me! She is sorely missed.

 

So this week went fantastically well, even considering the goods weeks we have been having. We even had a baptism! It was kinda a miracle...who am i kidding, every baptism is a miracle! Its Mark, the husband of one of the more recent converts in the branch, who we have been teaching the past month. He was at one point very excited for baptism, but whe we talked to him earlier this week, he said he wants to get baptized, just not yet. Thursday night roles around and we have another lesson with him, and its the same story. But after mucho talking and scripture sharing, he accepted to be baptized saturday. His cute as can be 7 year old daughter gave the opening prayer at his baptism and melted everyones hearts. Then the baptism went extremely well.

 

Mexico is advertising on the TV something called "Noches de la Famalia". Its this program the president is introducing to the country where every monday night the family gets together and has activities and if wanted, religous lessons. Sound familiar? What a bunch of goobers...

 

So Jose and his three sons came to church again this week, which means the can get baptized this week! They are very excited about it, as am I. We will probably be doing it Sunday, due to the fact the the branch is going to the temple together on Saturday. Again i say, so selfsih...

But its going to be awesome cause the whole branch will be there. 

 

Well things are still rolling smoothly. I feel like a lot more happened this week, but all I can think about right now is food. Im starving! No Mom, its not causing Im not eating ever, Im just hungry cause thats how I am.

 

Hope everyone has a great week! Take care, and remember, "have your pets spayed and nuetered!" -Bob Barker 

Love,

 

Elder Kitterman

July 18, 2011

Ba`ash kah wah lik?

Mish bah!

 

^ thats mayan for nothing. And my subject line says "Whats up?"

 

We have been doing our best to pick up Mayan because we have a few investigators that speack more mayan than spanish, and one that doesnt speak spanish at all, only understands it. Its tough but Mayan is pretty legit. The grammer is really similar to english, but the only tough part is its almost impossible to find someone that knows how to read and write in it. Somebody told me that apart from the symbol based written languages such as Japanese and Chinese, its one of the most difficult to read and write. But thanks to the good old gift of tounges, I have my Book of Mormon (well selections from, technically) in Mayan, and slowly but surely study that each day.

 

So i really apreciate everyones willingness to help out with our new family we are helping; Jose and his three boys. Their circumstance is very poor and we are doing our best to help them out without literally giving them money from our pockets, even though sometimes I am tempted. We have to be careful, especially as misionaries, to not just lure them to church by giving supplies, and then when we stop they just fall away. Even if thats not our intentions, its very possibly. But the bright side is, with or without help they are very excited to get baptized and learn more of the gospel. This Sunday should have been their second week in church. I say should have because something horrible happened. They came on their own this week, which was awesome, but they came about 15 minutes late, and we had already started the sacrement. Our humble little building has no foir (spelling?), or nice cozy waiting area. Its as simple as walking from the street right into the room where we have sacrement meeting. Mexicans are pretty hardcore about not opening the doors during the passing of the sacrement, and because of this attitude, the brother guarding the door literally pushed it shut when Jose and his three little sons tried to enter. They knocked softly 3 times, but he wouldnt open. Niether me nor my comp saw any of this as, we were sitting with some other inverstigators towards the front. After waiting a few minutes and thinking nobody was going to let them in, they left. When one of my recent converts Andrea told me what happened cause she saw it, i was furious. I obviously couldnt do anything since i didnt find out till after sacrement, but still. How are we suppose to be the chuch of Christ if we shut the doors and dont even stick our head out to tell them to wait a few more minutes and they will be let in? This was the second time in two weeks that this particular member had done something that cause serious issues wit investigators of ours. Its furstrating cause they have the best intentions, but sometimes dont realize what they. We correct them with little to no sterness, and they just do it again. Fortunetly, we found Jose later that day and explained what had happened. he said it was alright and wasnt upset.

 

We had the 11 year old brother of Andrea in church as well. He is hilarious. He is about the size of a normal 16 year old, and has the mentality of one as well. He is under the influence of an older brother who is into some bad things, as well as some cousins, so he has yet to accept a baptism or anything, but he is learning very quickly and we have high hopes for him. The crappy part is our branch pres wouldnt let him go with the other 3 youth in the branch because he wasnt 12 just yet, so he had to be with the primary kids, which the next odest is 7. Hopefully that doesnt put a damper on things.

 

Every companionship got a portable dvd player for their apartment. This was shocking to me for severally reasos. One. I feel safe to say we are one of the strictes missiones in the world, and here is our Mission Pres, who is the reason why we are so strict, giving all his missionaries giant opportunities to sin. Two: We have never been givin anything in the mission that could be used for any kinda of entertainment, even if it is church videos. Three: I actually have something to do at night when we get back rather than just kill mosiquitos and eat tortillas! They havent explained the reason why we have them just yet, but i think its beacuse we will start using it in comp study in the morning to watch the videos of "the district", or other missionaries in the states that have been filmed being good missionaries. Fun stuff. The dvd playes cant leave our apartment, and we are only allowe to watch movies that hve the church logo on them.

 

Well all in all, this past week went really well. We are starting to average really good weeks, which unfortunetly means they become average weeks and we have to work even harder to have good weeks again. but thats how it goes. Hope eveyone had a great week, and is enjoying summer. Im not! Humidity and heat blows... But more people let us in so that good! Thanks for all the letters and prayers. They are both well recieved.

 

Love,

 

Elder Kitterman

July 11, 2011

Last week my district leader told us if we had better numbers than him again this week, he would but us Dominos today, but if had better numbers we would have to pay. I wont mention who won, but the pizza was extra delicious if you know what Im saying... Anyways, the point is I love Mexico. You can pretty much eat anything with anything and its perfectly fine. We had a peporoni and cream cheese pizza, with catsup and salsa on top...and it was good...

 

I loved Dorians letter about all the weird stuff about Mexico. It reminded me from back when i got here and thought all that was weird. It just all seems so normal now. But the Jehovas witness thing is pretty common. Ive had more than one companionship study just standing in the doorway going back and forth with a JW on doctrinal stuff. They have some pretty interesting theories.

 

So this last week was changes, and I stayed as did my comp Elder Skeen. I was glad we stayed. We had an even better week this past week and now have some really awesome investigators progressing. My favorite would have to be George, the 76 year old man with all the interesting stories. We also found a new family this past week. Its a father and his three sons (ages 8,7,3). Their mother past away from cancer 8 months ago, and they were left with nothing. They live in the middle of nowhere, in a tiny room with little to nothing. He has to take care of his boys, so the only work he can really get is doing stuff around the house he is renting and the owner pays him very little for that. He couldnt afford clean drinking water this week, so we bought some for him before we started one lesson. I have seen plenty of struggling people/families here in Mexico, but this is one of the worst cases I have come across so far. Its terrible to see. I wont ever forget starting our very first lesson with them, as we started with the childs hymn "Families can be together forever", and the littlest boy named Victor just looking up at me watching me sing the whole time. His father explained to us that he was just starting to talk a lot more when his Mom died, and now he doesnt really say anything. This struggling families situation made me think a lot about when the lame begger asked the apostle Peter for money, and he said he had none, but then said "as much as I have, I give thee", and the crippled man rose up an walked after being commanded to in the name of Christ. Thats the sanctifying power of the gospel. It can bring hope to even the most desperate of situations, and illuminate even the darkest of paths. I cant fix these peoples finacial problems, and our tiny little branch is of little help in that sense as well, but I can give the greatest and most precious gift I have. The gospel.

 

We have finally left Hna Chuy. No sense in beating a dead horse, right? I was sad to leave her by the way side, but it had to be done. She isnt going to be baptized anytime soon, but there is still hope for the future. We also had to let go of the tribe. We cant get them to go to church, and they dont know how to read, and dont understand anything out of the scriptures, so gaining a testimony is very very difficult. But fortunetly, we have been very blessed to have replaced all of our old investigators with new ones plus more, who all look very promising. 

 

We were walking by a group of bike-taxis when someone greeted us in english. We turned and saw a rather large fellow on one of the bike taxis waving to say hi to us in what english he knew. So we went over to talk to him, and had a small conversasion in english, but when he ran out of things to say, he finally asked us what we were doing in spanish. We told him we were missionaries and what not, and he asked a few questions. We eventually ended up on the Book of Mormon. We gave him a copy, which is rare here cause hardly anyone ever reads it, and supplies are usually limited. But we saw him the next day and without asking he told us it was amazing and made him feel really good. Unfortunetly he wasnt home when we had set the appointment, but we are hoping to catch him sometime this week.

 

Well thats all i really got this week. I have a few pics, but im already in Cancun and forgot my cable...sorry. But anyways, I hope everyone has a great week!

 

Love,

 

Elder Kitterman

July 4, 2011

This week went fantastic!

 

Thats like my new theme word cause President Salinas asked me how I was in english at a conference this last week, so i asnwered him with "fantastic". He liked it so much he started using it all the time. Its fantastic!

 

So i will just start with that conference and go from there. It was awesome, and the last one we will have of the like. It was soley on how we should be teaching as missionaries, and pres focused a lot the spirit and what we have to do and need to be to have the the companionship of the spirit. It was a very long list, but all things we should definetly strive for as not only missionaries, but members of the church. All the requirments came from the scriptures, and included such things as pray, fasting, love, charity, long suffering, and other that escape me at this moment. But it was good stuff. next we got back to Leona and right off the bat things started rolling really smooth. We had the best week I have ever had there in terms of numbers, and by the end of the week we were dead tired. It was fantastic!

 

We finally taugt the nonmeber husband of a recent convert who actually lives in the same building as we do. He has always worked every sunday so couldnt evercome to church, but we noticed he hasnt been working sundays, so we finally got to talkin with him, and turns out he probably wont be working sundays anymore. He has taken all the discussions before and has been to church 2 already before i was there. We start talking about baptism and find out he wants to do it, but is just afraid that he will go back to the way he used to be before his wife was baptized (Turns out her baptism and his two little kids had helped him stop drinking) but doesnt want to go back to it. We shared Moroni 8:16 with him, which says something like, "I fear what no man does, because the perfect love of God casts out all fear" He just kept reading it over and over, and wouldnt even really pay attention after that, because he then noticed in the verses before where it talks about infant baptism and how baptism is for people who have sins. He just sat there thinking. Without us saying anything, he told us "Im going to go to church with my family this week". when we asked him about baptism, he said he knows he needs it. We taught him a few more times after that, and turns out friday night he tells us something happened and now he has to work this Sunday unless he can find someone else. Saturday night somes, and he didnt find anyone, but says he was going to do his best to get done with work super early to come back for church. He works construction in cancun, and was going to leave at 4 to try and be back to catch the last hour of church. We show up at 9 am sunday as the services were starting, and hows sitting in the front row? Mark (thats his name! Fantastic right?!) It was a straight up miracle. 

 

Well Mom had some questions I could answer last week, so I will get to some of those. I loved the package! All the stuf was way sweet, especially all the primary stuff. I havent given it all away, since there is only like 3 kids here in the primary, but they all love it. All the candy is already gone cause i shared it with most of the members. I get sick now if i eat too much junk food. Weird right?

 

That guy that came to church a few weeks ago, the one where he said he was going to working, turns out he lost his job haha. Anyways, we have been teaching him, but he is super lazy and wont ever come back to church. hate that.... The 76 year old guy that went to the conference (george) has the coolest stories. He told us a story about how he was helping birth a cow, and had his whole arm inside the...eh...rear end of the momma cow, when it got scared and sat down on his arm, and he still has his arm! how cool right? He also says he used to be able to touch up to 4 meters with his hand jumping...which i think is like over 12 or 13 ft. Pretty nuts.

 

Well thats all i got for this week! Oh almost forgot, 3/4 of my zone went to a buffet for Elder Rupps (my mission brother) birthday. It was fantastic!

 

Have a great week everyone. Much love.

 

 

-- 

Love,

 

Elder Kitterman

June 27, 2011

Okey - Dokey

 

This week went really well, and i will do my best to tell you exactly why, but we are running short on time cause our district leader just called and wants us in cancun early for interviews with him.

 

Monday through Thursday were normal days. The work here is slowly but surely picking back up. We are finding a lot more people through members now tha they actually trust us again. Pres. told me 2 months ago that it takes 2 changes on averagwe to fix a dead area here. I thought that was crazy and didnt really believe him. Now I know its true...

 

Friday we went into cancun for a missionary conference with the 70, Elder Tenorio and his wife, and it was bomb. He blew our minds with some great examples and scriptures on the power of prayer and how we should be praying. That afternoon we headed back to Leona to start frantically running all over town trying to get a for sure list together of peoplet that were going to go to the special conference the next day. We never could find a ride for all of them, so we just had to pay ourselves in a normal van that transports people to and from cancun all day. We talked to one driver and he said we could rent the van for those hours and it would be just for us so we did that. I actually knew the driver from a while ago. He is the son of an old investigator, and didnt want anything to do with us when we tried talking to him back then, but he agreed to drive us. Saturday came and we still werent sure who would show up. We told everyone to be at the park right next to where the van would leave from at 4 oclock. When we got there at 4, there was only 2 people there. A 76 year old man we had just started teaching and his crazy friend who just likes to make fun of us. We waited to aroud 4:20, and still nobody has shown. We thought we were done for, but we decided to pray and hold out. As we finished quietly praying Andrea (who just got baptized) and her sister and brother in law who are also members showed. But we were really focusing on her husband to go, but she told he cahnged his mind last minute and didnt want to go. Not taking that junk. We loaded up and made a stop at her house. I quickliy found him and he tried to give me some lame exuse about not having pants. So i told him that shorts were fine, and his brother reassured him that he should go. So 5 minutes later he was in the van. We went back to the park and found two more recent converts waiting , with a non member friend. Lastly, we stopped by another recent co0nverts house and grabbed her and her non member daughter.... All in all we filled the van with one more person than it was supposed to fit. 6 investigators and 6 recent converts. We started with 2, but I definetly know that it was our simple cry for help that allowed us to have that many go. 

 

The conference was amazing, and I truly believe that Elder Tenorios promise that all investigators that went will be baptized will be completed. I wish I had more time to explain each persons thoughts on it but, but bascically the husband of Andrea who never ever wanted to talk to us before, now wants to get baptized as soon as possible, our 76 year old inves who was always skeptical on everything we taught says he will get baptized when he finishes reading the book of mormon, the daughter of the other recent convert wants to learn more about everything, the friend of our ives who just makes fun of us wants a book of mormon and is going to start coming to church, and the friend that tagged along (who doesnt even believe in god) says he felt something extremely different there.  

 

Ive never seen some many changes so quickly and all at one time. It was amazing, and only strengthened me and my testimony that this is the lords work, and the spirit can change anyone at anytime time. 

 

I dont have any pics this week due to the rain. Its been raining so much here lately! I hope everyone has a great week.  
-- 

Love,

 

Elder Kitterman

June 21, 2011

Well, We are writing on this marvillous Tuesday morning because we were having too much fun with Josh and Cortnie yesterday to write. Yes, they did take us out to lunch, but before i get to all that, i will tell you more about my week.

 

Mondy night, right after district meeting, we recieved a call from Pres. Salinas. Thats usually not a good thing... So he talked to both of us, and it turns out our branch pres wrote a letter with some false info regarding Elder Gutierrez to our stake pres, who in turn wrote a letter to pres salinas. Well I explained everything to pres Salinas, but although he believed me that Elder Gutierrez had no fault, he still had to special change him. What happened was that a young women in the branch expressed feelings for Elder Gutierrez in a letter, and some how word got out that Elder Gutierrez was the one one who wrote the letter to her. He didnt even want anything to do with her, but in such a small branch, people come up with some pretty crazy stuff...

 

So Teusday morning, he was off to Merida where his new area is, and arrived Elder Skeen from Virgina. This is my third american comp. He is a way cool guy, andlikes to work hard, so that was already better than my last american comp! We spent that week helping him getting to know the members, investigators, and the area. Since we dont have a map of the town, or dirrections, it can be a little dificult at first. 

 

Nothing too excited happened between that and Friday, but Saturday we did have a baptism! Andrea is the name, and cooking is her game! She works one of the best food stands in town, and gives us free food without letting us pay all the time. Jackpot. But the baptism went extremely well, and Cortnie and Josh were there in spirit! haha They told us about how they drove pretty much a third of the penisula trying to be there, but I feel their pain with the freeway systems here. If you take the wrong one, it could be 100s of kilometers before you can turn around. 

 

This is one of my bravest converts yet. I have seen what seems like countless investigators back out of taking the discussions and even sometimes there baptism simply because thier family doesnt like it or doesnt support them in it. Her sister got baptized a week before i got here, but is already inactive so she wasnt a great help or example. Her husband tried to discourage her a few times, as well as her Mom and Mother in law. But she never faltered. She knew it was true, and now is a member of Christs true church, and nobody can ever take that from her. 

 

Sunday, we were hoping to have our ginat family we are teaching and a few others in church, but it was raining pretty hard, and these people just do not go out in the rain...that really sucked. We tried our best to convince the, saying it wasnt rainging that bad, while were getting soaked standing outside thier house yelling to them inside their house. Not fun. Then, out of nowhere shows up Elder Skeens sister who is on vaction with her husband in cancun. So after church they took us out to lunch.

 

Well monday finally came, and after 4 hours of washing clothes, we were off to CPK in cancun! We met Josh and Cortnie there, and Cortnie didnt even cry! i was so proud of her... We had an amaziong lunch and just talked. I watched all the videos of Mom, Kim and Sierra. those were way funny. Then they gave my th giant suitcase full of stuff! Holy crap it was like Christmas. Thanks for all the supplies and ties. The pics were really great too. All in all it was a pretty good day. We had a blast.

 

Well thats about it for this week. I fell like this was kinda a plain letter, nothing really spiritual of exciting, so i will write a good one next week. Hope everyone has a great week. ¡Cuidense!
-- 

Love,

 

Elder Kitterman

June 13, 2011

Hey everybody!

 

So this week was crazy insane in the membrane, so i will start from the top, but before that...

Happy Graduation to Emily, Nick, and all the rest of the class of 2011!

 

Well on Tuesday we went to go chop some firewood for a women we had contacted while knocking the week before. We are so used to doing service, that we have found we have more success teaching if we offer service before even bringing up the church or religion. They of course know who we are, but they gain a different idea of us after we have helped them. This contact, I remember, was really cool because we talked to her for a solid 5 minutes before religon was even mentioned. After that first 5 minutes, she finally told us "I have been thinking about looking for a church to go to". Pure mercy from the Lord i tell you... Although it seemed like Christmas for us, we didnt want to scare her off. People in this tiny town tend to not like us whn we talk about church and the gospel. So all we told her is that we would like to talk to her and her family some time next week, but that we would come by and chop some firewood for her tuesday. We came, hacked away, and werent left with a lot of time so we set an appointment for the following day, Wednesday. A member came with us that has a chainsaw to help, so that was fun to use.

 

Wednesday came, and when we arrived to her house, out came this women that looked a lot like her. It was her sister, and she asked us if we could cut some firewood for her as well. Of course we said yes. We finished with hers pretty quickly, and were about to ask if we could share something with them, when out came another women, this time the sister in law of the two other women, who of course asked if we could cut some firewood. It was a lot of firewood for each family, and my hands were already a blistered mess. We agreeded with a willing heart and began chopping once again. By the very end of her large pile of wood, the mixed blood and water from my blisters had begun to drip down from the handle of the axe to the ground. It was pretty knarly.

 

Turns out, on this one piece of land, lives 5 families, all related. We call them, our tribe. We finally taught them on Thursday and put 10 baptismal dates between a few of the children over 8 years old and their mothers. We have not yet had the chance to talk with their husbands, because they work long days during the week, and are mostly drunk on the weekends. It wouldnt be the first time a drunk changed his life through the gospel, but 5 at one time...that might be a first. Im hopeful for that to happen.

 

Friday we taught them again. In order for them to progress towards baptism, they have to go to church. So we focused on getting themto go. They told us they would be able to this week because they were going to go out to the other property they have, 7 or 8 kilometers away to get more firewood (what is it with the firewood, seriously!?). We offered to help, on the condition that we went early Saturday morning so they could go to church. they agreed, so we were up at 5 Saturday morning and were off with the Brother in the branch who owns our house, who has a big dulee, construction bed pick up. We swung by and picked a fwew of them up, and of we went to the middle of nowhere, literally. It was 5 kilometers down the main raod outside of twon, and another 3 or 4 kilos down this tiny, extremely rocky road. I felt like we were on a jungle exersion, because every 400 meters or so, we had to jump out and hack away a fallen tree with machetes and axes. Luckily we had a member come that brought his chainsaw too.  The truck also got suck like 3 times. But finally we arrived, and began gathering firewood. I didnt bring my camera, but i wish i would have, cause it was pretty cool out there. We completely load the back of the members truck up with wood, which was mountain load. we took it back and unloaded it for them, and in total it took lik 5 hours.

 

We went with them Saturday in the late afternoon to verify they were going to church. We figured it wouldnt be a problem now, but to our horror they said they had an "event" that they had been planning for a while. Its a yucatan tradition i guess, where they take all the young girls and spread their legs apart farther than what is natural, so they can bare children more easily. These Mayans are one crazy people. So none of them went. But we did have one man go, who his married to a inactive. He works every Sunday, but we taught him about faith this past week, and he said he wanted to come and would try, and he made it! That was poretty cool.  

 

So i was pretty bummed that that family didnt go, but they will of course have many more opportunities. In total, including the husnands and the people we havent takled to yet, there is 15 or more that live there. We will see how everything goes this week.

 

We got a call Wednesday night about a conference that will take place in Cancun the 25th of this month. A 70 is coming to speak to all the recient converts, inactives, and investigators. He also promised our mission president that whatever investigator goes, will get baptized. Needless to say, we have been inviting everyone. We already have about 15 or more people agreed to go, not including this family we found. Now all we have to figure out is transportation... More on that as it develops.

 

Friday morning, I witnessed my first tropical storm. It was pretty awesome. It wasnt quite a hurricane, but close. We were tracting when it hit, and i didnt have my rain coat, so we headed back to the house. But within 1 minutes I was soaked as if I had jumped into a pool. people were looking at us from inside there house as if we were crazy. There is a picture taken from inside our house of us on our patio.

 

We have a baptism set for Saturday that looks really solid. Her name is Andrea and she is the sister of another recient convert. She has two little kids, and a husband who is not yet ready to listen, but we are getting close!

 

Well thats all I have time for this week. Im praying for some more miracles this week. Hope everyone has a great week, and remember, there are no problems, only opportunities.

 

Love, Elder Kitterman

June 6, 2011

So I had a great week! i know... thats kind of a surprise what with all the stuff thats been going down here...

 

Before i get to the boring stuff....HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Emily freaking Stewart!!!! Your an adult now! it seems like you rurned 14 the other day. I guess that means Im getting pretty old too.

And of course to Kyle Truchard! Im almost positive it was this past week, and if not its coming up soon. But speaking of that guy... It wouldnt be horrible to get an email from him to let me know he is still alive! Go grab a tractor tire and celebrate...good times...

 

But things in the branch are starting to look better, we are getting some great inactive familes to come back, and one of the best parts now is that we have young men! Yup, 2, count em. They are part of a family we recently reactivated and already had the priesthood, so we got them passing the sacrement right away. That was great cuase now we can actually sit with our investigators instead of having to do it ourselves. Our branch president continues to put a damper on our work, but we have learned to kinda dodge him and let all his scoldings about too many family home evenings go in one ear and out the other. I mean honestly, who says we cant have fhe on nights other than Mondays? I spefically asked the big man upstairs and he told me it was ok....

 

We continue forward with Hna Chuy. We will get her yet. Nothing very new devoloped this week, but i can honestly say that she has now surpassed Marisol and Silvia (converts from cancun) in terms of how much I have worked with them to get them baptized.

 

I guess i could entitle this past week as animal planet week here in Leona Vicario. We had more animal encounters than usual. For instance, I ran down and caught a goose (harder than it sounds), got to chill with some cows for a little bit, and my personal favorite... a monkey! It belongs to the neighbor of an investigator, so after a lesson one day, we asked if she thought we could go see it. Her neighbor and she are cool, so her nieghbow took us in thier backyard and we got to play with it for a little while. In the pictures its chained up, but it doesnt run away when its not. It would climb up and hang on our necks and just kinda chill there, it was pretty sweet.

 

Other activities worthy of note this week include climbing a tree for some very delicious fruit, which i have forgotten the name of already. It seems like I eat a new fruit I have never seen nor heard of weekly. They are all so good and I have no idea why they dont have them in the states. Also, we had a family home evening with a great family in the branch that has a hilarious 3 year old son. He looks like a young Chancho from Nacho Libre... Anyways we watch the video finding faith in Christ, and after my comp and I both bore our testimonies. I was last and toward the very end, he feels the need to...eh..."release his waters", so decides that on his moms leg is the best spot... Somewhere between the screaming and the laughing, the spirit exused itself...oh well

 

Well I figure some pictures would be very welcomed, so I will get going on uploading those, since it takes a little while. The one with me in the yellow raincoat is at Hna Chuy´s house. It was going to rain, and she told us she sells raincoats, so I wanted to try one on fro fun. I hope everyone has a great week. I will end with a great quote from my comp, Elder Gutierrez. When asked by me, "who was the first son of perdition?" He ponders, then answers confidently, "The pope"

 

Love,

Elder Kitteman

May 30, 2011

Hey everybody,

 

A big thanks to everyone that gave me the birthday shout-outs this week and last! It was great hearing from everyone.

 

So this past week started off just as they all have been lately, a little on the slow side but pretty good none the less. Tuesday, we started teaching the sister of one of the more recent converts here in town. She is really interested in everything and always has a ton of questions and different things she has heard from people, which are always fun to answer. She came to church this week and really enjoyed it, so that was dope. But the downside of Tuesday was when we went with Hna Chuy, the lady with the coffee problem who we have really been working hard with. She told us she didnt like church, but it was for no particular reason. She was upset but we couldnt find out why. The problem is, she is very touchy and gets upset easily. She said she didnt want us coming by anymore. We told her we were of course sad but if there was nothing we could do to change her mind, then we wouldnt come anymore. We also told her we would continue to pray for her, and she looked a little taken aback when we said that, but she said fine and we went our separate ways.

 

Wednesday was pretty normal. Nothing new or spectactular. Thursday was my Birthday! Elder Gutierrez gave me a sweet tie and some awesome picstures of us that i hadnt ever seen. But a lot of bad things were made manifest (my english seems to be turning into a kind of "Book of Mormon" language) that arent exaclty helping the work move forward. I wont go into extreme detail, but here in Leona Vicario, there has been a supressed vibe within the branch. Its hard to explain, but i could feel it when i got here. Since then, it has grown and finally hit rock bottom. Turns out the problems stems from things that not only happened not too long ago, but years ago as well. I wont go into detail about any of them, but the cause of the problems is easy to see. There is a deadly virus that has spread throughtout the town, and continues to do so. it has recently affected my comp and I and the work we do in the worst of ways, has driven people from the church, and has caused friendships to collapse and testimonies to be shaken. Its a diease that it seems that everyone has, and something that i have seen affect people in only the worst of ways throughout my whole life. Its rumors and gossip.

 

Im not going to write any of the muck the people have been coming up with here. Im also not going to write too much about how I feel about all of it, I might put my head through this computer screen.... But i will simply say that nobody, with the exception of the Savior and Heavenly Father, knows the circumstances and situations of others. Too many think they are doing a harmless thing, trying to guess or put together what they believe has happened, when in reality they are stirring the pot, and in the process getting their own hands dirty. Its something I have heard and read the Prophets discourage, something I have seen almost destroy lives. Im saddened to say that before my mission, my hands were just as dirty as the next persons, and unfortunetly this type of dirty may not wash away as quickly as we would like. As a missionary, I have a different view point as i did before, one that makes me realize just how dangerous a few simple words can be, and how easily it all could have been avoided had one person just not shared what was to not be shared. Its not as easy to avoid. its not a physical substance such as alcohol or drugs, and we might not even realize what we said until after we had said it. The best way to avoid it, dont participate. I promise you your opinion is better kept to yourself, until asked for, and even then, it should never be to put somebody else down. This town that I am in, the branch in which I serve, is literally falling apart because of gossip. The members here should know better, as should we as well.

 

Friday we spent trying to mend testimonies that had been hurt over the past weeks, months, and years. It is extremely frustrating to see great people kept from going to church because they dont want to face others that had said things about them. Saturday we had another great lesson with the sister of one of the recient converts, and sunday was a solid service with a pretty high attendance rate that we hadnt had for a while, and included Hna Chuy, who had told us she wouldnt only come if we didnt bother her about us teaching her or coming by. Then sunday afternoon, she came to us at our house, just as we finished eating with the members we live next to. She said she wanted us to come by at around 8 cause she had something she wanted to tell us and that hopefully we would forgive us. We knew it had to be something good! We went at 8, and she told us she was sorry for telling us not to come, and that she would like be to baptized in 3 months. That means she went from not wanting to be baptized, to wanting to wait for 2 years, to 1 year, to Dec., now down to just 3 months! When we asked her why she cahnged her mind, she said she would tell us Tuesday. So i guess we will see tomorow.... But i still feel she we can cut back the time more, but we have to be careful cuase too much preasure and she will close again.

 

So sorry, but I definatly forgot my camera cable back at the house, and seeing as we are short on time, I wont be able to get any photos out today. Sorry again.

 

So that was my week. Things are picking back up thankfully. Thanks again for all the Happy Birthdays and everything. I remember when i turned 10, and went to Mom and said that I was a decade old now. Well Mom, Im two decades old. Love you guys.

 

Elder Kitterman 

May 24, 2011

Hey Everyone,

 

So your probably wondering what happened yesterday that I couldnt write, and why Im writing today. All that and more will be answered in this letter! Just stay tuned...

 

Well as you (my family) know, we were planning, or more like I was planning, to go to CPK to eat for more Birthday. Elder Gutierrez had no idea what that was, so it wasnt exactly easy for him to get as excited as me about it. But lately, things havent been going to great in the work her in Leona Vicario, and hes been taking it pretty hard. Like me, this is his second area. His first was in a ward in Cancun that averages probably the most baptisms in the whole mission. The work is so good in just that one ward, that they have 3 sets of missionaries there. Anyways, it was a big change going from that to this tiny town, where its not exactly known for its missionary sucess. Over the past few weeks, I have seen his spirits slowly diminish. Im doing alright cause my last area was dead when i left, but that was mostly because my last comp and I didnt get along at all. So instead of going and eating a restaurant that he probably wouldnt appreciate as much as i would, I came up with a better idea.

 

I talked to his last companion, who is actually our district leader, and we arranged a kick back with one of Elder Gutierrezs and his recent converts from just a few months ago. It was the Elders quorum president, the recent convert and his family, and our district which includes us, our district leader and his comp, and the zone leaders. It was way fun, and the best part was that it really lifted Elder Gutierrezs spirits. There was a lot of carne asada and all that jazz. But it took awhile to get everything together, and before we knew it, it was almost time for district meeting and we didnt have time to write. The highlight of the day was when we all decided to each eat a habañero pepper. I took a video of it, so you will be able to see the hilariousness(did i spell that right?) when i send it home soon with Cortnie.

 

My week was pretty good. monday night we went on divsions with our district leader, and I worked his area and he worked ours. We pretty much traded favors, as he put a baptismal ate with one of our harder investigators, and i put one with one of his investigators that they have been working on too. The date he put was with Hermana Chuy, the lady we have been teaching that I told you about on the phone. She has been having problems with coffee. her problem being that she refuses to give it up. But she said she would try to stop and accepted to be baptized on the 4th of next month. She came to church too this week, but we later found out she has been drinking her coffee, and then she told us she didnt like something st church. Im hoping somebody didnt say something to her, cause shes a little on the sensitive side. Shoot me in the foot and call me gimpy...

 

Other than that, we have just been looking really hard for people to teach. We are getting really good at first and second lessons, but nobody wants to progress. They are either not married, married but left their first spouse and now live with another, or are married and couldnt be bothered to do anything about their lives. Its hard sometimes because it makes me feel incapable at times, like its something that im doing wrong that is stopping these people from progresing. I know thats not the case, because i know we are following the spirit. i can feel it. But thats more or less normal in times like these, when we dont have a lot going for us.

 

Thursday, we did some service in the morning, and i remember thinking "Man its hot out here". When we got back to the apartemnt to shower and get ready for the rest of the day, we hear lightening strike. We run outside to see a wall of rain coming at us, followed by a lot of dark clouds. We were pretty excited to say the least. The weather can change in seconds here. Anyways, i was interested to see how far back the clouds went, so i grabbed my rain coat and climbed up on the roof. Elder Gutierrez was right behind me. We only had shorts and flip flops on though, and it started raining pretty hard. Then it started to hail. Climbing down from the roof isnt exatly a quick process, and since the hail started to fall harder and it killed on our bare feet and legs, we had to hunker down behind the giant tank of water that serves as our water supply for washing and bathing. But it passed after a few minutes. That was my exciting hail adventure.

 

This Thursday is my birthday, as you know. im not sure ye what im going to do. I was thinking I would try and set a new record for myself of how many baptismal dates i could put in one day. But that will require a lot of finding and ninja-like teaching. Dad, i apreciate the offer to go eat something good, put there isnt exaclty a wide variety of food here. i can choose betwen the guy that sells roasted chickens on the corner, or...well thats about it. But I will see what i can do!

 

You guys asked for more pictures of my area, which will be coming right up...next week. I just dont have an on demand supply of photos. If you request some it will take me a week to get them. I will try and make it worth your wait! Thanks to everyone that wished me a happy early birthday, and if you havent yet, get on that!

 

Thats all i gots for this week. I hope everyone has a great week! Love you

 

Elder Kitterman

May 16, 2011

What up,

 

We didnt get a whole lot done this week, due to 2 different conferences Wednesday and Friday in Cancun and mornings filled with a lot of service. On Wednesday, we had a Zone Conference in which we talked of nothing but love. When i arrived to this mission, it was just begging its transformation under the new direction of my president from a "Do your own thing" non Preach My Gospel mission, to one that exemplified a perfect mission. Our mission President addressed us and said that after these past 6 months of training and putting into to practice the techniques and teaching structures, we as a mission now know how to be Preach My Gospel missionaries. But he told us we now lacked the most imprtant part in our teaching and work; Love. 

 

In 1 John 4, the apostle Paul teaches us:

 

7-Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

 8-He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

 9-In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

 10-Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

 11-Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

 12-No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

We learned a lot of different things, but mainly that is only through the love of Christ that we have love at all. All types of love are only made possible through Christ, who was given to us out of love. The love we have for our friends, family, everyone, comes from Christ. It is the first and greatest commandment to love God and your fellow man. In 1 John, the apostle teaches us that God is love. Like all other principles in the true and everlasting gospel, love is a principle of accion, and requires that we show it through our works. It is also an empowering attribute. In Romans 8: 35-39, Paul teaches us that with love we can suffer all things. As missionaries, we will have little success unless we search out our fellow ma to love, and guide them to the truth.

 

To achieve this level of love for all others and in Christ, we must first humble ourselves, as did the people of King Benjamin in chapter 4 of Mosiah. They viewed themselves as less than the dust of the earth. What is less than the dust of the earth? Nothing. We are nothing compared to Christ, and it is only through him and his gospel that we may live. Through his influence and power, the planets themsleves aligned perfectly to form the galaxy we now live in. He knows each and every being prefectly, and only asks that we love Him, and our fellow man. Once we have humbled ourselves, comes a burning gratitude for what he did for us, and a desire to repent. With a remission of sins through repentance and baptism comes joy. True joy.

 

Have you shown Christ that you love Him? Up till this past Wednesday I couldnt say that i truly had.  

 

We are talking 35-40 Elders that all realized at the same exact time that they truly did not love Christ. The spirit was as strong as I have ever felt it before. Nobody would talk. Our president, over the course of just a few hours, had completely humbled some of the best and upstanding young men i had come to know in my whole life. This conference was between two zones. The zone i just left from a month ago, and the Zone which I first came into to, the one i am in now. i knew every single Elder, and the feeling was mutual. We were nothing. But soon after that, through many powerful testimonies and scriptures of hope and light, our president proceeded to show us that we can indeed show Christ our true love for him everyday through our works. We as missionaries have an opportunity everyday to preach his gospel to all the world.  

 

I have had, so far, much more powerful lessons through what i learned. I couldnt even begin to duplicate what our president did for us. I wish I could, for all my friends on missions, my family, everyone. But that is why he is a mission president and i am missionary.

 

Mom, I did get the packages, and thankfully nothing was stolen!  Thanks Kim for all the pictures, they are great. And the backpack really helps with the heat. Thank you!

 

Well that all I have time for this week. I hope everyone has a great week! I love you

 

Love, Elder Kitterman

May 9, 2011

Hey everyone,

 

This letter will be a little shorter, due to the call yesterday and the fact I dont have as much time as usual today. We came to Cancun early today to go bowling with the rest of our district. It was way fun! But now we are shorter on time...

 

So the call yesterday was really great. It was nice to here how everyone was doing and just talk to some familiar people, that speak english... I will give a wuick recap of the week for everyone that wasnt there for the call.

 

Me and my comp have found a new hobby, cutting firewood. It helps relieve stress i guess... So we borrowed two trike type things, which has the body of a bike but two wheels in the front and room to put a lot of stuff, and huffed it out to the middle of nowhere to hack down some dead trees and what not. We had to go over an overpass bridge, which is the second time in all my mission i have seen one of those, let alone a decent sized hill. Then on saturday we taught a new investigator from Switzerland. He speaks German, French, Spanish, and Italian. He really likes everything we are teaching him so thats cool. His dog also understands almost all those languages...i thought that was pretty cool.

 

Saturday night we stayed in a little town about an hour from where we live called Ideal. We slept in an unfinished room above a members house, which was interesting. We stayed for the services there where it was a high atendance rate of 17 people. The town only has 1100 people living there, and they are all from one of three families. Right now, my greatest desire is to convert that whole town, like Alma and the sons of Mosiah would do back in the day. Just go around converting towns at one time.

 

Then sunday i talked to the fam! that was awesome. Happy Mothers day again Mom. I also recieved Grandpa and Candis calender with all the pictures. That was really cool to look through! Thanks a lot for that and the letters guys.

 

Also a big thanks to Aunt Claudie for writing and giving me an update on all the happeninds over there in Arizona. I really want to hear more about Aarons new girlfriend. Is she rolling with a 6 or an 8? what color is she? Year? Sounds like between him and Korey, Im going to have to get me a Jeep now to keep up. Thats also way cool that Bransons playing Lacrosse. Man I miss that...

 

Well here are some pics too....I could expail them, but its more fun if you just figure them out. Hope everyone has a great week!

 

Much love, Elder Kitterman

May 2, 2011

So yesterday was the 1/3 mark of my mission. Time is going ridiculously fast...almost as fast as me!

 

This week especially flew by. We had a lot to do, but strangely enough, now that im trying to think about it all, it escapes me. But fear not, for I will do my best.

 

Monday night at district meeting, somebody brought a pair of clippers. About 20 haircuts later and the whole zone has shaved heads. Yours truly included. Its pretty short, but it feels so much nicer what with the heat and all. Mom, they made me do it, i swear...

 

We had a baptism on friday! Her name is Sandra, and she is about 35 with 2 or 3 kids. She is crazy, but my comp, a week before I got to this area, asked pres if they should keep teaching her. Pres asked my comp, "Does she have the capacity to sin?" my comp of course answered yes, to which Pres replied, "Then you are responisble to teach and baptize her" ouch... Well we got her into the font, but it wasnt easy. I didnt know her that well to begin with, and niether did my comp. but her teaching record said she had been taught everything she needed and it had been verifyed. Wrong. The day before her interview, we went over the questions with her. She didnt remember who joseph smith was. So we quickly gave her the shake down to try and jog her memory. She began to laugh when we gave her his account of when he saw god the father and his son. Not a good sign.  She didnt believe that anyone has seen Heavenly Father or Christ. In fact she believed that they wee both spirits and didnt have bodies of flesh and blood. This is the day before her baptism! To put a cherry on top, we couldnt mention the name Thomas S. Monson without her cracking up. Like i told you, she is a little off her rocker this one.

 

So we broke it all down to her, but she wasnt convinced by the time we left. We did however emphasize prayer, and how she would know for herself it was all the truth. She agreed to pray, and we left knowing it was going to take a miracle. I believe miracles to be like good recipe. It takes a bunch ingredients such as faith, hope, patience, and . We came back the next day a few hours before her interview to see what had hapened. When we asked how her prayers went, she said "I believe it all." That was then followed by a similar question i had,  "why didnt the other missionaries teach me all that earlier?"  

 

After her baptism we had a branch activety for the dia de los niños, or Kids day. I had never heard about it, but its very real here. The missionaries were asked to do a skit for all the kids. So we called our district and he and his comp to come and help us out. My district is an extremely funny and talented mexican, that plays the guitar and can sing opera. We didnt plan anything until 5 minutes before hand, and basically just stood up on stage singing and dancing like idiots for 20 minutes. It actually went really well.

 

Saturday we went to Ideal again. I love the town. We taught a whole bunch of family members of the family that runs the branch, including a family of 7 or 8. It was a cool expierence because when we started the lesson, there was just 2 women listening. But we knew how big the family was, so we decided to teach on my favorite principal, eternal families. As the lesson went on, slowly but surely, one by one, the rest came in to listen more closely. by the end, the whole family was there, half of them in tears. It was an amzing lesson. The tough part about it is, we can only go teach them once a week if we are lucky, unless we sleep there, and we are working on finding a place to sleep that wont get us mugged and worse, bit by 1000 mosquitos.

 

yesterday we watched the movie Charly, with a few recent converts and an inverstigator. I cried like a baby. If you havent seen it, go watch it. but dont be surprised to your eyes start to drip (that was for you Mom)

 

Ok, about the phone call. I am going to call at 7 my time, which i believe is 5 your time. I cant remember. Here, mothers day is the 10th, and i forgot back home it alwasy falls on a sunday haha. But 7 it is.

 

I have an announcement to make before i get off. I, Elder Kitterman, am extremely excited to see Courtnie Bigelow in June. Hopefully that clears up some issues people are having (You know I love you Cortnie)

 

I just heard Osama Binladen was killed.... cool beans. Although it sounds really fishy that they would dump his body in the sea... Oh well. He has some serious thinking time right now, and in a little bit he will have some explaining to do.

 

Peace out

 

Elder Kitterman

April 25, 2011

Hey everyone!

 

So my first week in my new area went amzingly well. I will just go down the list.

 

My area is a tiny town, with only a few paved roads, no stoplights, and extremely friendly people. It reminds me of a larger St. David. We live in an apartment that is part of a 4 apartment building owned by a member in the branch. His sister lives with him and his home all the time, due to the fact that she only has one leg. She has been on crutches for who knows how long, and i wont want to mess with her even with the missing leg. She is very nice but I can tell she doesnt take anykind of crap. This morning when i went to go wash all my white shirts, she looked at them and pretty much rebuked me because the colars were stained yellow from all the sweat. She then made me hand wash all my collars and sleeves with soap ad bleech unti they were as white as when i got them. She taught me how to do it, which is surprisingly harder than you would think. My knucles are now raw from all the scrubbing, cause you cant just use your fingers. 

 

The best part of my area is the fact that includes all surrounding towns as well. There are about 3 or 4 that we know of that are all about an hour away, that have their own branches, or at least a few members. Saturday, we went to the next biggest branch in our area, a little tiny town called "Ideal". The branch out there is run by a family of 7, and their tiny little shack house doubles as the house of prayer. They have about 21 member in total, but only about 10 go each week, and thats including thier family of 7. These members deserve more than what they have for al their hard work and faith, but none the less, they are truly happy. Its exteremly humbling when i think about everything i have always had.

 

 We put together a branch  family home evening, where we did a popular activety on the plan of salvation. There were games set up, both games of the world, and games of the gospel. Depending on which games you played and how many times you played them, decided which glory you would achieve. There was three separate rooms set up for each room. The smallest and darkest was telestial, the little larger and more lit the terrestial, and the biggest, well lit with food and music the celestial. Im pretty sure Elder Rodrigues way down there in Guatemala Land did the same type of activity. It turned out really well. We have plans to spend 2 or three days at a time in each little pueblo to try and get the activation rate back up and help out the branches. We did a few visits with the family in Ideal, and 3 out of the 4 visits had to be translated by one of the members from spanish to mayan so the inactives could understand. That should be interesting. But a really awesome member of one of the other surrounding peublos, San Angel, told me he would start teaching me Mayan. Sweet deal...

 

But back to Leano Vicario. We have about 30 members attend each week to church. The house of prayer is a little shabby but it works none the less. It definetly is a little cooler here than in the city, which is really nice. We got the bikes to the point where we could ride them, but the are still in bad shape, since they are from like the 70s i think. We decided to hold off on riding them until we have the time or money to fix them completely. The seats are so old that after riding them just the one day, we were both walking like we had been beat with a paddle for 10 hours straight.

 

With such a litle town, comes the small town drama. I met two of the converts from one week and 1 month ago. They are two teenage girls, 19 and 16. I guess one of the elders before me was flirting it up with some of the young women and wouldnt work, so pres pulled him and put in my comp, elder gutierrez, only one week before i got here. Anyways, the 19 year old girl isnt happy that there are two new elders, and now she doesnt really want to come to church. When we taught her, all she wanted to talk about was the elder that just left. It got really annoying. The other girl, actually has a strong testimony and doesnt mind that the other elders left, but now is starting crap with her friend, the 19 year old, because she is being a deeby downer all the time and not coming to church. And we, the missionaries, are cuaght in the middle of it. Its calmed down, but highschool drama isnt exactly what i signed up for here. Especially in mexico, its like a soap opera...

 

One of the counslers of the branch opened up an account with a local bank not to long ago, and desposited a million pesos that he took out on loan from somewhere. Well the million pesos went missing and now he has had to flee to Merida to hide from the cops. Its a pretty big deal among the members that know about it here, and since the missionaries almost run things here, of course we know. So now we are a counsler short and have a crap load to do.

 

My comp is awesome. We get along really well and both have the same ideas about how to go about this area. It should be a really fun change. He is from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Mexico. He is extremely humble, since from what he has told me, his family has next to nothing. He slept on the ground so that his other siblings could use the small bed they had. He is always smiling.

 

As missionaries, we always offer to help with whatever anyone needs. That means service as well. In cancun, we always offered, but they always said no thanks. Here, people will turn us down when we contact them, but when we ask if we can do anything else, they glady accept, and we then pick up trash in their yard, pump water out of the well (thats not fun), Move large objects, etc. $ out of the 7 mornings, we are at someones house at 6 in the morning helping do stuff. Service here means hacking away dead palm frawns with machetes, and burning trash. Its not too bad...

 

They dont celebrate Easter here in Mexico...Sad day. They do Semana Santa instead, or Holy Week. Nothing too crazy, just a lot of congrating in the local churches.

 

Well i got other peeps to write. Im sure you can figure out the pics for yourselves. if not, just ask me next week. Have a great week!

 

Love, Elder Kitterman

April 18, 2011

So i got changed. I know some of you are just dying to know how beutiful Playa del Carmen is, but you will have to wait to hear that one cause thats not where Im at. To be honest, im sitting in an internet cyber in Cancun, close to my first area in cancun, Peten.  My new area is called Leona Vicario. Its a tiny pueblo as they call it, about an hour bus ride outside of cancun. A direct translation of pueblo is "town" i think, but here its more like village haha. I would love to tell you all about it, but i wont be there till tonight! My new comp, Elder Gutierrez came this morning to the bus station to see his comp off and begin our beautiful new companionship. We have been with my new district leader and his comp all day, and the cherry on top is that im back in my very first zone, Kulkucan (which is the mayan snake god, fun fact). I am always once again in the same zone as my distant relative, Elder Brewer. Man i love that guy...

 

So the reason why we are kicking it in cancun until tonight is cause every monday night we have to come to cancun for the district meeting, and since we were already here, we are just hanging out until after the meeting. I have talked with Elder Gutierrez quite a bit already and he seems legit. We have about the same amount of time in the mission, but he has only been in our area, Leona, for one week...We are the only missionaries there, and he says its pretty big area wise for just 2 missionaries. Should be fun. OH! and we will be on bikes! They got permision from pres. last week, so we just have to get the ones they have fixed up, buy helmets and we are good to go. Im stoked cause walking blows...

 

We dont have a ward eaither out there. Its just a tiny branch with a house of prayer. No font either, just like a tank of water or something...We will see this week hopefully. Elder Gutierres told me we should be baptizing a 9 year old girl from an incomplete family, and possibly a another women. Not sure yet.

 

He says its not as hot there, because its slighlty less humid and there is a butt load of trees that absorb the heat and create shade. I think im really going to enjoy these next couple of changes, no joke.

 

This last week with Brockbank was good. We found a 25 guy named Daniel who has a lot of bad things in his past he wants to change. Me and him were talking about how he used to go down to Playa with friends, steal cars, and then trash and ditch them by the time they had arrived back to cancun. We got along really well hahaha (just kidding mom...not really) I was sad to say goodbye to TumbenCuxtal and all my converts and the members, but it was time. Marisol cried when i told her i was probably leaving. It was tough.

 

Yesterday they reorganized the stake i was in. Elder Johnson of the 70 came and spoke, along with the merida temple pres, my pres and his wife, and all the old and new stake presidents and counslers gave their testimonies. It was off the hook. There is so many things i made sure to remember and write down, and i would love to write a few, but to be honest we are pressed for time today, cause we have to go find helmets. Nobody uses them here, so nobody sells them excep Walmart, and thats on the other side of the city. So off we go. I will take lots of pics of my new area and write a solid letter next week. Glad to hear Dad really enjoyed himself at Taras wedding bahahah

 

I hope everyone has a great week!

 

Love, Elder Kitterman

 

P.S. Sorry there havent been a lot of photos, or any as of this week. I will get on that.

April 11, 2011

Last week, I bought for the first time a thing of ice cream to have in the house. It was a kilo, about the same size almost as the ones back home. But when i went to eat some tuesday night, I ended up eating it all. Some things will never change.

 

Work finally picked back up this week. All week except Wednesday went really well. On Thursday, I got to do divisions with another Elder from my district, Elder Joseph. I have worked with him before a few times. He has less time than me, but his parents are from mexico so he already knew spanish. He is probably my favorite Elder in the mission so far. We both do everything very similarily and have the same opinions on everything, so we get a lot done when we work together. We were on our way to teach a first lesson, and from what I knew about this guy, we both felt pressed to introduce the book of Mormon. i told him that he should get really enthusiastic when we started talking about it, just to see what would happen. Well when it was his turn to talk about it, instead of just a nice calm explanation of how it can bless someones life, he stands up and puts in his hands in the air and starts shouting "You have no idea what this book can do for you!!!" I couldnt help but almost die laughing. The guy got the point, and now he is reading it.

 

We are teaching a lady named Wendy. She is the sister of two members here in this ward, and has finally decided to investigate the church after all this time because she wants her family to be closer. There is a lot of tension between her and her wife, and her kids couldnt be bothered to care about anything but themselves. Her daughter is 18 and her son 21. But so far she is the only one with a desire to really listen to us and apply what we teach. In one lesoon with her husband present, I asked the question "Do you know that God loves you?" Normally, in Mexico, this is a pointless question. Everyone believes in a loving Heavenly Father, but I felt I should ask it. He said "God doesnt have time for me". We did all we could for that man. I shared every scripture I could think of, every testimony i have, and every conviction I could give, but the outcome was the same. He feels to far off the beaten path to make his way back. My heart literally hurts for this women. She justs wants so bad for her family to become the Celestial unit it is capable of becoming, but our most precious gift that we have been given on this earth, our agency, is standing in her way.

 

Im thankfull for eternal families. Im thankful for the work I get to do that will hopefully one day bring as many families as possible to the temple. An Elder from the MTC i know shared a quote in his email home this week. "We spend two years away from our families so that someone can spend eternity with theirs" 

 

I got some other peeps to write to, so im gonna cut this one a little short today. Changes are next week, so if i dont write, its probably cause im on a bus heading to...maybe... Playa del Carmen? haha I doubt I will get the two most tropic areas in the mission in a row, but one can hope. Hasta la vista, baby

 

Love, Elder Kitteman 

April 4, 2011

k, so first thing I want to do is make a public anouncment.

 

I, Elder Kitterman, openly admit that I am going to miss the flower shop. Shocking I know. I wont miss being its slave, but that place holds a lot of families memories and it was nice having a place to go to always see a smiling face that would say "I need you to take a delivery out to Perris". Im getting all choked up, I have to stop...

 

But I wasnt sarcastic about missing it, I really will.

 

This week went better than the past few have. We had zone training for two days, so that help. It was wednesday and thursday, from 8 am till 6 pm each day. We basically sit in a airconditioned room in the chapel and learn about being more effective teachers and finders. It was easy peesy lemon squeezy. For those two days we had another companionship staying in our house because they are a part of our zone but their area is 2 hours away. After 6, we go out a work in our area, trying our best to put into effect all the stuff we had just learned. We learned about how we need to be more willing to teach in the moment we find someone that wants to listen. I took it very literal and decided to try and start teaching full 15 minute lessons on the street if the person would allow us. I went out with one of the other elders that was staying with us, and he only has a little more time than i do, but still struggles with the language. Everyone single person we talked to within the first hour was interestedto hear us out, and after a short lesson with each of them, we put 6 baptismal dates. It was intense. The only thing was that 3 of those were for another area. But all the stuff we have learned seems to really be helping.

 

Then it was conference this weekend. I love conference. We didnt get to watch saturday morning or afternoon session, but we watched priesthood, and both sessions sunday. Sunday morning was bomb. There was a small room for english because sometime white tourists find their way to the building for conference. There was about 6 american elders and two older couples, one that was visting for vacation, and the other that lived here for the winter. I got to talking with the guy who lived here, and he told me all this cool stuff about how his great great grandpa and his great grandpa were caught and held for a few months by a mob that was sweeping a mormon communitee looking for Joseph Smith back in the day. He also said he lived in san diego back in the eighties, and now lives in Salt Lake during the summer, and he said he thinks California has a stronger group of members. HA!

 

We still are having trouble finding people. Not because nobody will listen, but because when we go back after teaching them once, they are never home again. We went back to one guys house 6 times throughout the day to try and catch him, but he was never home. Its like that for just about everyone right now for some reason. Its giving me an ulcer.

 

No, my package hasnt come yet, but only because nobody has gone or come from the offices lately. My zone leaders are leaving today and will be back wednesay with any packages. Im sure it will be in there. Courtnie pointed out that I never said what was wrong with my elbow (my bad). Im pretty sure i just hyper extended it. I say pretty sure, because they doctor just told me i didnt break it, and when i asked if the ligaments were ok she gave me a look like "thats going to cost you more money" so i left it how it was. But its completely fine now.

 

Changes are in two weeks from today. Im hoping to get changed. I want to see other parts of the mission!

 

Thats all i got for this week. I will see what I can do about having something amazing happen so i can tell you guys next week. I hope everyone is doing well!

 

Adios, Elder Kitterman