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