August 12, 2013

Dear Family,

So this past week I'd like to start off with a really funny story. So we just got onto the train with our bikes and it was one stop so we just stood by our bikes and there was this really funny 3 year old right there. So of course we started exchanging faces. And so since we were in the bike part of the train the seats are on the wall and fold up. And he was squirming all over the place. He almost fell off. Then he got up and walked to Elder Abbott and punched him in his huevos (luckily he missed) then he looked up and laughed and walked backwards to his seat and sat down on the folding seat. And he just fell flat on his behind. He looked at us like wow what happened and his mom (seeing what he had just done) started holding in her laugh. And we were trying to hold it in too. And the kid was so confused where his chair went. It was way funny. Then he got up and started climbing all over his sister. Ya that was our story. 

So here is a bit of a background on M.. So as a kid he got a Book of Mormon. But later in life he became a priest. Shortly after becoming a priest he started meeting with the missionaries. Then 4 years ago he was baptized. He was excommunicated from the Catholic church. Then he ran across some anti-mormon stuff and told his bishop he wanted some time to just be a member not have a calling. To keep his responsibility low so he wasn't overwhelmed. But his bishop in Munich said, no he needs a calling etc. So it led to contention and M. (not quite knowing the consequences) pulled his records from the church. So now he is trying to get baptized again. Yesterday he had an interview with the stake president and now his request to be baptized again is going to President Monsen. We should know in a few weeks what's decided. 

What else? So we have this less active member Bruder S. His wife isn't a member. But they are so cool. So my name isn't Elder Kinghorn anymore. It is now Scotty and Elder Abbott is Viper from Top Gun. And Bruder S. is the magic dragon. We aren't quite sure where this all comes from, but oh well. It's funny. This guy loves the Book of Mormon. He reads in it every day. But he loves his beer, and says non alcoholic beer is for children. Hmm how can we fix that. Oh well. We are meeting again on Friday. This will be fun. And there is another less active Bruder W. He works a ton on Sunday for the train security. He was able to come to church yesterday though. That was awesome. So happy that he was able to make it. 

Yes I got the care package. Thank you. It was kind of ironic. I got it on the 9th. Elder Abbott got 150 euro in the mail. It was like christmas. So I said wait is today the 9th. Hmm today is Jason’s birthday. That's awkward. And the shoes are great. We use them in the morning for exercise. We get up at 6 and shoot hoops for a bit then do conditioning. Yes, like actual conditioning. Except we can't go too long because we are so out of shape. Missionary work isn't as physically demanding as people say. It's all mental draining.

Well I've got to go. We are going to BMW world today.

Love you

Elder Kinghorn:)

August 5, 2013

Dear Family

Well this week we had tons of fun. I'm not sure why but we seem to find lots of shirtless Russians. So on Saturday night we came back from meeting with Martin and still had an hour till dinner and bed. So I said “Let's ride over here.” So we do and on the right we see this old shirtless man playing basketball. So we pull over and ask if he wants to play. He said, ya so we played horse with him in church clothes. Then on the other side of the court two kids go play and then a third guy is playing over there. So Elder Abbott said we should all play together (we are still in our church clothes) so we ask them and we play 3 on 3. They are on some team we found out and it was funny how differently they played. It was a different sport. It is tons of useless passing trying to trick us. But we were being lazy and not really trying. so they were just running in circles for no reason. Completely different sport. Well, just a bad offense set up. But ya, that was fun. Next time we go we are going to bring Russian Book of Mormons to give to them. And we will be better dressed than dress shoes haha.

Ok so M. (the priest) is doing great. He is either going to be baptized this month or next. He is way excited and is trying to get permission to go through the temple as soon as he gets baptized. We will see how that goes. We rode with our ward mission leader and M. to a stake priesthood meeting last night and talking about everything. I look at the speedometer (this car he got for 400 euro) and our 83 year old ward mission leader is driving 180. Wow. But then we start talking again. M. told us a story about a bishop 5 years ago in check republic who has no crosses in his room. M. saw a picture of Moroni and said hey that's Moroni. And the bishop said, “how did you know?” M. said “I have a Book of Mormon too. So it turns out he gets his talks from lds.org. He doesn't copy them, but he takes the main ideas and talks about it. Kind of funny.

So H. is doing great. He is reading the Book of Mormon. He said he has been jumping around and reading. But he is actually reading. He knew some of the war stories and the names of people. That's way better than the people who read a sentence every hundred pages. His biggest problem is that he lives 100 miles away from the church. Ok not really but it is an hour and a half bike ride and he has no car. And we have no members who live remotely close to him. Well we have one less active family. But they have no car either. Uhh life.

Well anyways we also found this sweet old couple. We were going to get groceries next week and we saw this old guy sitting there with a chess board. So we ask if he wants to play with someone. So we sat down and played with him. Then his wife came back from grocery shopping and waited for a while. After 2 hours we set up an appointment for thursday. So we met up again and played more chess. Then we are going to meet this week but we don't know quite when. But this time they'll have a Book of Mormon and will accept an invitation to be baptized. Ok I'm not completely sure about that but still. Never know.

Mom, well first can I ask for a couple things. Well playing basketball in my church shoes doesn't work too well. It kind of ripped the skin off of the bottom of my big toe. So could you go to Amazon.de and buy a pair of basketball shoes (Kevin should be able to help you out knowing what's good) size 10.5 or 44 and also some American deodorant. Europe stuff is no good. I'm almost out of American. Oh, and some Nike long black socks. They are better than the Costco stuff. Other missionaries use them and love it. Just like 6 pairs on Amazon. If they don't have them oh well.

Have fun
I Love you

Elder Devon Kinghorn

By the way I spelled the address wrong. It's Sebastiansplatz

July 29, 2013

Leute...

So this week we had so much fun. I'm going to start with the end. So last night we met with this Russian dude his last name B.. We can't pronounce his first name or write it, so sorry. So he invited us over to play chess. And he is way good at it. He wiped both of us out making tons of jokes. Then he got his guitar out and we were having tons of fun with that. He sang us some Russian songs. Oh and by the way the whole time he is just chillin in his shorts. No shirt with his fat hanging out. Way funny. After chillin for a while we made some tea (not black tea don't worry). Then he wanted us to go play badminton and we were thinking oh dang. This will be boring. So we go outside and he was so much fun to play with. Just making fun of each other. Then his son looked out the window so H.B. invited him to play and he shook his head no. So he said “Well my son is just fat” but jokingly and it was way funny. We talked a little bit about God and religion. But he lives right next to the church so that's great. Hopefully he comes to church sometime in the future. We will see. Ok now back to Ulm

So on Monday I sent a package home. So that should get there sometime in the future. It was super sad. We had an appointment with R.G. and someone who visits him once a week from the Catholic helper place. Betreuer whatever that is in english. Well he convinced Roland that he is too busy and we are meeting with him too much so he cancelled on us last Monday. that was very sad. But we made an appointment out for Saturday. I hope it went well. Tuesday we had the last district meeting. That was sad. I had a good district. Then after district meeting we um I don't remember. Oh ya we went to the bohnackers. They are moving to South Carolina pretty soon. In 2 months. He is starting his new job there. It was nice seeing them before I left. They got active while I was in Ulm and now they are going to get sealed. Maybe when I'm back. They might get sealed in Utah or Texas because that's where a ton of their friends are. 

Then wednesday we met with a new guy. His name is T. I forgot his german name. That's what his military friends called him. He was way hard to keep on track. He wanted to show us everything that had to do with music. His crazy orgeon (however it's spelled) and guitars everything. Then we went down to Ehingen for one last time. Where we met with J.P.. The less active who said he wasn't a member. He was gone in Landsuit for the past while and we finally met with him. We had an awesome lesson with him. He admitted that he was a member and that he would come to church this next week. So I don't know if he did. But I really really hope so. Then we went to Ettenschies, another city by lonesee. There we met with Jun and her husband Franz. She is super sweet and he is her less active husband. We were able to meet with him. Normally he doesn't want missionaries, but we left a very good impression with him. So hopefully he lets more missionaries in in the future. Then Thursday was transfer day. Not much happened. I signed a paper to get the new church building key. I don't know why I had to sign it but whatever. I guess that's policy here. Just run with it. Then we had English class. And it was super ADD with a teenage girl and her brother. They are actually the kids of the Russian guy we met with on Sunday. But Sunday he was home alone. 

Friday was also a good day. We went to our ward mission leader’s and had lunch. He doesn't know what high german means. He only knows Bayerisch. Way funny. Then we met with a guy named H. He is from Iraq. And he is not a Muslim; he is a jew. Ya crazy huh. Then we met with M. the Catholic priest. He was baptized before, but then well a long story made short, pulled out his papers. But he is ready to get baptized again and has to wait for permission from the first presidency. He really wants to get baptized.

But Saturday we cleaned the building with the ward. We did all of the windows. Fun job. Then we went dooring. And we got let into 3 different houses. Well 2.5 The last one we were just given water. It was funny he is in his swimsuit, then his girlfriend soon to be wife comes around in a bikini and is like what is going on? We were thinking what are you doing in your bikini? Well then again earlier that day a girl answered the door in her bra (she was hiding behind the door luckily). And we had a couple old dudes answer in speedo's just like hello world. Ya go Germany in hot weather. Oh Germans. Got to love them. 

Then Sunday we had 2 hours of church. Because that's how we do it here. And we only wear white shirts to church. I was the most dressed up person with a long sleeve white shirt. Seriously. The branch president’s wife told us not to wear suits. And H. and M. came to church. It was great. And also an American family on vacation came. Then after church we studied and had a lesson with M. and then had our Russian friend.

Well you'll get a ton of chocolate soon. It's in your package. And also your christmas present I got back in december. Haha just a bit late. And no dark is for women. 

And yes I understand the german here. I'm trying to learn how to talk like them. I have to try more to understand the german. But it's still easy. It's similar to Austrian. 

And I hope you have fun at your thingy. And get a good comfy couch. How it looks isn't important at all. Just if it's comfortable and won't get destroyed easily by us or the dog. 

And here there is a ton of corn. Tons of corn fields. I don't know why. But it's fun. We need better bikes though. Ours are just destroyed. But it works for now. 

I love you,
Elder Kinghorn

July 22, 2013 Last week in Ulm

Dear Family well I am getting transferred to Neu Ötting

Kirche jesu Christi
Elder Kinghorn
Sebanstainsplatz 20
84542, Neuötting
Germany

It is hard leaving Ulm behind. Ya I have been frustrated with them at times, but I really love them. And we left on a really good note. So on Saturday we had another lesson with R. and he wants to get baptized on the 17th of August!! It's way sweet. He is so excited for the Gospel. In the past 4 days he has had only one cup of coffee. He is almost over his addiction. I'll easily be able to come back because it's a cheap train ride to get to Ulm from Neu Ötting, only 26 euro. We are also meeting tonight after we go to the Lindt outlet. Everything seems to be going good for us. R. came to church. And also G. came to church. G. has a hard time reading the Book of Mormon ,but he is also going back to Australia in not too long. He hasn't been able to make any team or anything. So that's a bummer. But maybe college ball. I don't know why he doesn't go there. Oh well.

Saturday we had a musical fireside in Ellwangen. The ward there forced the missionaries to do it so we went and helped them out. It actually went really well despite the fact that I can't sing, but elder Garrett in Ellwangen is way good at the violin. He plays at BYU. And Sister Motto is really good at the piano. Then I sang 2 Songs with the missionary choir. It kind of worked. I didn't destroy it. I had a really fun exchange with Elder Peterson last week. We found some really cool people and met with S. and G. So what happened was they invited us over and we pretty much answered G's questions. He has a ton of them. Then they had us stay for dinner and it was a YSA dinner for their church. They were really cool and they were all shocked by how good our German was. G. is from the states and speaks almost no German. And we have only been here 4 months longer than him. So that was funny to see the difference between us.

That's crazy how many people are off on their missions. And I hope you have fun with your mission prep class. I have one more district Meeting to run before I'm off to NeuÖtting. Then I'll be a normal missionary again. And if you see any cool things about the apostasy please send it to me. I'm off to Catholic land. Yes, teach with the Spirit. But knowledge is a Christlike Attribute and very important in teaching.

I Need to go soon.

I love you all

Elder Devon Kinghorn

FYI while we were at Powell the timer on Devon's phone passed 10,000 hours since he left. At least it won't get to 20,000 before he gets home.

It is only about 9000 episodes of Top Gear and he will be home :)

July 15, 2013 Here we go

Dear Family

This week has been a pretty darn good week. Sadly, R. wasn't able to make it to church but we had someone else at church. His Name is G.T. He was born in Sudan and then moved to K with his family when he was a small kid. Then when he was 15 he moved to Australia where he went to high school and everything and now he is 22. He is here trying to be a pro basketball player. He has some highlights on YouTube so if you want to look him up go for it and tell me how good he is.

So one of our ysa's, well our only ysa, C.C. works at a gym and he speaks no German. C. was the only worker who spoke perfect English so she talked with him. Then they got onto the topic of God. And he was super excited how she was religious. So she gave us his number. Last week we called him and there wasn't a time we both had time to meet but he said he would come to church. So he did and he loved it. He really enjoyed the Spirit that was there. And how he was happy meeting with us. Then at the end of church Sister B. invited him over to her house for dinner. So we all went there for dinner and it was a good meeting. Then at 8 we wanted to give the first part of the plan of salvation. So we started about the pre-motal existence. And he really liked that. Then the 10 Minute lesson turned into an hour and a half. We talked about everything. We haven't talked about the word of wisdom yet. But he doesn't smoke drink or drink tea. And we don't know about coffee. And his whole life he has been centered on Christ. He doesn't remember his dad and his mom died when he was 15 so he has had a hard time. But he always focused on Christ and that made it much better for him. He has had many experiences with prayer and knows God is there. Then we asked him what he would do if he found out the church was true. He said I'd go to your church every week. Then I'd go to my old church and tell everyone that it is true. And then go back to Kenya and Sudan and build the church there. He is so cool.

Then also we met with R twice and L once. They are also doing well.

I asked president about the new Dress Standards. Well we will see what he says. Good thing I told Jason to get a side bag intead of a backpack huh.

That's funny about Lake Powell. I was talking to a ward member about it. She was baptized there. I was jealous. She spends a month there every year. (her dad is fairly well off I think) And ya, next year with the boat I'll be there to do all the ropes. Kind of funny how much of a difference it makes having one less guy there. And ya I'll be there next year to make it a bit easier. We could still invite anyone you want to. By the time I get home it will be too late to do invitations. And ya, I am not homesick. Germany is a cool place. I never had homesickness. Just do what Elder Helmsley said. Just pretend like your family back home just blew up. Then everything will be better when you get home. So that's how it goes. But not really you know what I mean.

Tell Alex congrats. Haha he tried so hard to get married for the first litte while. It was funny. And if my spelling is terrible because I'm missing letters sorry. This keyboard is terrible.

I've got to go

I love you everybody

July 8, 2013

Dear Family

Well we have some cool stories from this past week. Well the broadcast about missionary work really hit Germany. Well especially Ulm. Our branch president said it was revolutionary how members are supposed to do finding. That means I need to be a better neighbor. Then in church the person who gave the priesthood lesson said ok so this Saturday we have a ward party. Who has invited anyone to that? And no one did. Then he said I haven't either and that needs to change. Everyone needs to invite someone. I think we will see a lot of people at this ward party. Germans just needed a very direct statement from the first presidency. The rest of the world can take beat around the bush statements. But germans will take anything to heart when it's direct from someone with authority. 

Also yesterday R.G. came to church. We picked him up in Ehingen and he didn't cancel. He was super excited to come to church. So as we were walking to the train to go to Ulm he was talking about how he has vacation from work in a couple weeks. He said he could do lots of stuff with all of his free time. I said you could get baptized then and he said ya I think I could/ I am almost ready for it I think. He is so cool. So in August he could be baptized. It's not for sure but it could easily happen. 

Also another funny story from this week. So we were going to meet with a less active member. F.G. And we invited the sisters from Göppingen to come because we couldn't find another man to come at 2 in the afternoon and having sisters counts as a man. But she had to cancel because work called her in. I knew that she loved the sisters, so I said oh then I'll have to tell the sisters to go back to Göppingen and she said oh sisters are coming?  Well I can move work back an hour so they can come. So the sisters saved the day. 

Oh today we are doing something really cool. So the Americans in Stuttgart wanted all of the missionaries to have a 4th of july. So all of the missionaries are going to Stuttgart and having a bbq. Doesn't get cooler than that. Ok ya it is the 8th, but close enough. It's still a real American bbq with american meat and sauce and everything. They get that on base.

This Saturday I finished reading the book of mormon again. I want to let everyone know that the Book of Mormon is true. It is the word of god and it will help anyone with any problem that they have. There is no question too big that God can not answer through the Book of Mormon. This is a truth I have seen over and over again throughout my mission. 

So president miles and I we basically just talked for a while. Nothing that exciting. And we go to Stuttgart once a month usually. We are here today actually but I haven't seen Stuttgart. Just the churches and missionary apartments. Not too much. I see Ulm a lot. It is just as cool as Stuttgart I think. It is really an awesome city. And D. she has been a member since the 80's I think. Quite a while. She is just having a hard time coming to church because the church is different in Germany than Portugal. And yes. the kebabs are amazing in Berlin. That's what everyone tells us. They are super good here in southern Germany, but they still don't compare. Jason said he went to one in his email. And they suck in Spain. Really, they are bad. They were invented in Berlin even though it's Turkish.

Ok, advice for Blake on what to bring. One pair of jeans. He should just buy 1 suit in America. Buy the next in Germany. He should get skinny shirts with small collars. And skinny ties. Ecco's are perfect and lots of garments. Since it’s summer here, don't bring a winter coat. Buy one in Germany they are like 60 euro and way warm. Bring lots of socks. Some warm for winter and some cool for summer. And what else? Bring a couple watches. They are good to have. And it's nice to switch it up. I only brought 2 and wish I brought more. Even just cheap ones from Wallmart. And bring scarfs maybe 2 and ya that's it I think for odd things to bring. 

ya I hope you are having a great day. I love you

Elder Devon Kinghorn

July 1, 2013

Stuttgart Interviews/District meetings- Goppingen District- Holman,Holmstead, Fletcher, Kinghorn, Garrett, Peterson, Motto, Clark 

Dear Family

Well this week was.... Awesome. Everything went right that could have. Well except for a couple late trains. But besides that it was great. First of all after p day we called up R. and asked if he wanted to meet. And he did so we went down to Ehingen. Then Tuesday we had interviews with President Miles, which was cool. Than we had an exchange with the other elders in the district. I was with Elder Garrett (no relation) and we had a good long talk with some old ladies on the train coming back from Stuttgart. Then the next morning we went out preaching the gospel to the world. Contacting was pretty good, but then we had lunch. And instead of lunch elder garrett wanted to look at watches. So we looked in the window and he said I'm buying it. And then he convinced me to buy one. So I did. Then we had a lesson with F.O. He is sadly going to the hospital for a couple of weeks. So we can't meet anymore. And we gave him a triple combination. He gave us this weird book called. ur-ewigkeit in raum und zeit. Really weird you can look it up or a translation in english and ya it's funky. We read some of it and were like...... what is this???? but oh well. Then we went contacting and ran into a castle. That was cool and then he went back to Ellwangen and Fletcher came back to Ulm. Thursday was good. We met with L.S. She is the 16 year old. Then after that we met with RG. Then ya, and Griday was our super super busy day. First of all we went to Lone see for a lesson with a member and our train left at 9:30. J from china. And she lives an hour walk away. Ok actually 45 minute from the Lone see train station. Then we went back to Ulm to get on another train to Heidenheim. So we had another eternally long train ride. And we had an appointment with the B. family. They had a friend there. Her name was B. (however it's spelled) Then after that we took a train back to Ulm and took another train to Illertissen. Where we met with the S. family. They are a part member family. And now it's 7 at night so we could have taken a train back to Ulm and then had dinner but I thought we can meet with Sister K. So we called her up and she said we could come by. So we walked the 15 minutes to her apartment and met with her.  Her husband didn't want to, so he just watched tv. but finally we got in at 9 at night starving for dinner. We were gone forever. But it was a sweet day. And busy the whole time. But then Saturday was also pretty good. We took an hour bus down to Weißenhorn and met with J.B. He was a bishop in Augsburg back in the day. But he hasn't been to church in years. They ended up giving us lunch which was nice. And then we went back to Ulm on the really long bus and then took a long train over to Ehingen where we met with R. again. He is way cool. But then we needed to go up to Ellwangen. So what happened is our ward watched the broadcast in Ellwangen (our branch hasn’t set it up) but we didn't want to take a train at 6:30 in the morning to get there. So that's why we went up that night, to overnight with the elders there Garrett and Peterson. So at church it was awesome. L.S's foreign exchange family was in Germany and drove them all the way up to Ellwangen. So we were able to get a ride back, which was nice. And the broadcast was way cool. We learned a lot. But we had to leave early because the family was leaving soon. But it was so bold how everyone needs to be doing missionary work. Missionaries are not there to make the wards grow. Members do that and missionaries are the ward’s tools. And it's true. The wards with the most converts, the wards actually try to do missionary work. 

Well yes our mission is growing a ton. We are up to 300 missionaries. And about 40 of them are senior couples, but still it's huge. Our mission is just enormous now. One of the biggest in the world now. I have no clue how President is going to handle all of them, but it's big.

And short sleeves are here. I don't know what the guy at Mr mac was saying. I got 2 of them a couple of weeks ago and got Elder Fletcher one. They are slim with a tiny little collar, way hipster but work well here. I'll come home and you'll think what the heck?

And I have no clue when all of the Facebook stuff is going to come out. Hopefully soon. But no clue. But President found out I am good with computers and tablets. So I could end up in the office to hook up all of the mission. So we'll see.

I love you
Elder Kinghorn