Monday, February 28, 2011

Pictures from Home

 (These are the pictures from home that Devon refers to in his email.)

Happy Monday!

Hey Fam,


Wow, those pictures look cool - a little too cool. It almost snowed here the other day too...well not really but I almost felt like wearing a long sleeve shirt in the morning.

Been another good week although a little crazy. We've been working hard and hopefully smarter and we're starting to see some results. As of right now we have a baptism scheduled for every saturday in march. If all goes well, we should have our first one this saturday. We're just hoping and praying that they all go through. Now that we have the branch somewhat in order we can focus more on our missionary work. Things are going well. I'm learning a lot from Elder Ferrin.

As far as things I need, I could use speeder-bike and a jet-pack but that's about it. Pictures are also good. For most everything else it is easier and cheaper to just get it here. everything you send has to go through customs and we have to pay duty on it. As far as branch materials, we have too much already for our little building and branch, but thanks.

Well, hope things go well. love you all.
Elder Kartchner

Monday, February 21, 2011

Pics

1. our branch 2 weeks ago

2. another sunrise

3. Elder Conder with a giant banana spider on his face


4. Another sunrise

5. Me and my half of the jack fruit.

Hey Fam

Mon, Feb 21, 2011


We had another good week. We did get slowed down a little because it rained all week long. After I'm done emailing I'm going to have to go back home and do a lot of wash. All of my clothes are all muddy from walking around in the rain and mud all week. fun stuff.

We had a pretty cool experience yesterday. We started working with this girl named Itiesha last Monday. We followed the counsel given in the new training for Preach My Gospel which says to extend a baptism date no later than the 2nd lesson. she didn't accept the date but it got her thinking and praying about it. On Sunday, when we met with her she said that she felt ready to be baptized and accepted a date. Just goes to show that the prophet knows what he's talking about.

Elder Ferrin is doing good. he still can't understand the patois (pronounced "patwa") which means I end up having to do a lot of talking but it's all good.

We had another good day at church. Things are starting to run a bit smoother now that some of the members have callings. We had quite a few people there including a few of our investigators. I got to give another talk since the other speakers ended early. I talked on tithing using the story of Elijah and the widow in 1Kings 17.

Other than that things are doing just peachy. We're starting to get some sunshine again.
Have a good week. We'll be sure to do the same.
Love you all,
Elder Kartchner

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Happy Valentines Day

Mon, Feb 14, 2011
Sounds like a good day at the bull sale. that's pretty high tech dealing with EPD's and such. That's cool though. I hope it works out as planned. Have fun fixing pipes. I can't say I miss that too much. Well, actually i kind of do, but whatever.

The branch here is doing well. We are continuing to make progress. Yesterday we sustained and set apart a relief society presidency as well as a gospel doctrine teacher, a young womens and a young mens president, and a music director. It was pretty much the coolest thing ever seeing the branch members accept callings and responsibility. We've been trying to get members with callings for the past 2 months and we're finally making some headway. We had a lot of people there at church again. We have several more priesthood that are coming regularly now which is great. Our next big hurdle is to update the branch records. They haven't been updated in years and many of the people on there have moved or died.

Yesterday I gave a talk on forgiveness and not taking offense. that has been the plague of this branch in the past. Everyone we talk to has been offended by someone at some point and that is why it all pretty much fell apart about a year ago and almost got shut down. We're trying now to piece it all back together and trying to make sure it never happens again.

Training a new missionary is fun. My new companion is Elder Ferrin from Pima, AZ. He's a solid guy with a great testimony. He's a good teacher although he's still having a hard time understanding the lingo. It's been good.

To answer your question Dad, I've been the district leader since last transfer.

Things are going very well. I love the work here. I have learned so much about the church and about myself.

Love you lots
Elder Kartchner

Monday, February 7, 2011

Winter

Mon, Feb 7, 2011
The weather sounds crazy where you are. We had this major cold front come through as well. I think it got down to 73 the other night. actually the weather here is pretty much perfect - not too cold and not too hot. I don't think I'm ever coming home.

We had another great week in Highgate. We made a lot of progress in the branch this week. I think our 5th sunday discussion last week really helped motivate some of the members. our branch president called us up and asked to go teaching with us which was awesome. We also got one of the members to start up a Friday Night Activity at the church where members could come and play games and socialize and bring their friends. It was a big success. we had about 20 people show up and several were nonmembers. hopefully we'll be able to continue to use it as a tool to help fellowship our investigators and find new investigators. We were also able to finally sit down with the branch president and discuss extending callings to many of the members and try to get things organized. Church yesterday was awesome as well. We had a record 39 people at church. We had several less-active's come back including several priesthood. It was the answer to our branch fast for January as well as many prayers to get more priesthood in the branch. It is really great to see the excitement in the members as they see others coming back into the church. Our hope is to continue this excitement and keep reactivating and bringing more people into the church. Right now we have several good investigators including a few part-member families that we are working with.

Other news is that Elder Conder is getting transferred on Wednesday to Montego Bay. I will be staying in Highgate and will be training a new missionary. I'm excited to train although I'm sad to see Elder Conder go. He is very obedient and hard working.

Love you all. enjoy the cold weather!

Elder Kartchner

Monday, January 31, 2011

Pics

Mon, Jan 31, 2011

1. Me overlooking the hilly countryside around 9-miles

2. Another beautiful sunrise in highgate

3. Yep, this is me and my district in a weed field. pretty funny story how that happened.