Hey Fam

Mon, May 21, 2012

We've had another good week here in Ochi. Things are going well for us here. We've finally started to see some good progress with a few of the less-actives that we've been working with. We're still struggling with our investigators. We don't have any right now that are really ready to change, so we're trying a number of things to find some new investigators. Besides all that, things are going well. We had good church meetings yesterday. I got to teach gospel doctrine which was fun. So, have a great week. Love you Lots!

Elder Kartchner

Thanks for the Call

Mon, May 14, 2012
Hey Fam,

 

It was so good to see you all. I'm glad the internet worked well. I appreciate all the good encouragements. I'm definitely working hard right to the end of my mission. Things are going well for us here. This week we had a really good opportunity to spend some time with some of the elders in our zone. It was a companionship that has been really struggling this whole transfer. We went on a 2 day trade-off with them and worked with them on a few things. It really helped them out a lot which has been really good to see. Unfortunately we weren't able to see the same improvement with our investigators this week. We have several investigators that we've been working a lot with the last few weeks but it seems like none of them are really ready to make a real change. It's been a little frustrating at times but humbling at the same time, which has been good for me. I'm continuing to learn a lot and I'm looking forward to what I can still learn in the few weeks I have left. 

Happy Mother's Day once again! Thanks for all you do. Love you lots!

Elder Kartchner

Mon, May 7, 2012

Well, I'm assuming you didn't get my email last week since I got on my email today and found out that all the emails I sent last week didn't go through. Anyway, This week was good. It was a bit slow since as far as missionary work in our area, but it was still good. Wednesday we spent the day in Port Antonio with the elders there and Thursday we were in Kingston. We also got tons of rain this week which always makes missionary work interesting. It's been good though, we have some good people we are working with. The best news of the week came today when I talked to the elders from Linstead and they told me that Vaughn, who I helped get baptized when I was there, received the Melchezidek Priesthood and is engaged to be married in the Salt Lake Temple.

Today we had a zone p-day with The North Coast Zone and Spanish Town Zone. Everyone came here to Ochi and we went to the beach. We borrowed a grill and had a big cook out and played some beach football. It was a lot of fun, but I am really sun-burned right now.

  

Talk to you soon! Have a great week.

 

Love you Lots!

Elder Kartchner

Happy Last Day of April!

Mon, Apr 30, 2012

We had another good week in Ochi, in spite of the rain. It rained most of the week, but we managed. Things are going well. We have a few good referrals and others that we are beginning to teach, so we'll hopefully begin to see some results fairly soon.

 

This week we had zone conference. President Hendricks spoke about the main concern the Brethren have with the church experiencing growth, but not real growth. The church is growing amazingly fast numerically, but many of those baptized are not being retained as a result of a lack of true conversion or a lack of understanding of repentance among other things. This is definitely the biggest problem we have in Jamaica. If you noticed in conference, several of the speakers addressed the issue of Real Growth. Anyway, our meeting was very good and opened my eyes a little bit more.

 

As for Mother's Day, I was thinking that I don't really need to call since I'll be home soon anyway. Ok, Just kidding. Skype would be the easiest thing for me. We'll have to do it in the evening. We'll probably use the same member's computer as last time so hopefully it works better this time.

 

Have a great week. Love you lots!

Elder Kartchner

Warming Up

Mon, Apr 23, 2012

 

Hey Fam,

We had a very good week here in Ochi. The only problem is that it went by too fast. It seems like my weeks keep getting faster and faster. We were able to get a lot done though, in terms of finding some good new investigators and getting some good referrals. Things are starting to pick up a bit. We spent wednesday and part of thursday in Montego Bay working with the elders there. besides that we've just been doing some good old fashioned missionary work.

 

That is really cool that you get to work in the temple. How often do you get to do that? For the conference talks, I wish we had a way to read them online, but I'll just have to wait till we get the May Liahona.

 

Well, have a great week. Talk to you soon. Love y'all lots!

Elder Kartchner

 

Happy Easter!

Tue, Apr 10, 2012

Hey Fam,

 

Things are going well. We didn't get to email yesterday since all the stores were closed for Easter. It rained all day anyway so we just stayed inside. My new companion, Elder Wright, is great. It helps having a Jamaican companion to connect with people. He's really good though, and he's a great cook. I got a taste of his rice and peas and fried chicken yesterday. It was good. I think I might gain a few pounds this transfer. Anyway, besides all that, things are going fairly well.

 

I'm sure you heard about the big storm and such in Texas last week. Well, we had 7 new missionaries that got stuck in the Dallas airport during it all. they were supposed to get here on Tuesday, but didn't make it until Friday. Two of them are in our zone now so I'm glad they made it.

 

Besides that things are going on pretty normal. We haven't heard any more about Cuba. I'm sure we'll talk about it when we have our meeting with President Hendricks on Thursday. Well, love you all but I've got to go. I'm a little short on time today.

 

Elder Kartchner

Happy General Conference!

Mon, Apr 2, 2012

General Conference was great. We got to watch it at the church here in Ochi via the internet. We just had to run a wire from the computer upstairs down to the TV and presto! Thankfully it didn't freeze up during any of the sessions which was a miracle since the computer got a bad virus last week. Anyway, the talks and such were amazing, as usual, and answered a lot of my questions. We had one investigator there on Sunday. It was really cool.

 

Well, this week is transfers. Elder Randle is getting transferred to Kingston and I'm staying here in Ochi with Elder Wright. I'm sad to see Elder Randle go. We've been serving together since the beginning of December and he's been a great companion. I'm excited though for Elder Wright. I don't know him at all. I just know he's a Jamaican from Kingston.

 

Well, sorry to miss all the Easter egg coloring fun. You'll have to eat some extra for me. That's cool that you got to see Joseph. Tell him hi for me and could you also get his email for me.

 

Have a great Easter! Love you all.

Elder Kartchner