May 13, 2013

Dear Family

First of all I am glad I was able to see all of you yesterday. It was great being able to call home. And it was much easier saying goodbye this time than Christmas. It makes me realize how much of a loving family at home I have. Lots of people don't have that. And I'm so glad that I have all of the support that I have out on a mission that you give me. I know that all of you love me and I love all of you just the same. 

And mom, Happy Mothers Day

When I get home I'll show you how to make farmer schnitzel. It tastes way good and you've never had anything like it before in your life. 

Well starting last week it was pretty good. We actually had 8 lessons in 7 days. That hasn't been done in Ulm in, well over a year. So we are trying our hardest. Ya, it's not Jason’s "we have lots of fallen out appointments but still 2 or 3 a day" but that's ok. Every mission is different. But the second highlight of last week (second to calling home) was mission tour. Elder Teixeira from the area presidency talked with us. We learned a lot and actually he gave different points to every part of the mission. Here it was a lot of getting referrals from investigators, so teaching their friends. It was actually really good and we plan on putting it into effect. The problem is we have only had one lesson since then and the time never felt right to bring it up. But the next lesson we feel will be much better for it. 

Ok so another really cool story. So last Wednesday we had a lesson with a guy named H. He was in our phone as a potential so we called him. Apparently missionaries found him about 4 years ago. But then we found out that he lived in America years ago and he had Mormon friends who gave him a Book of Mormon. So he showed it to us and the testimony that they left inside. Sadly, he didn't come to church but we are trying. Well then for the rest of the day we had planned to go around the area finding people (which is a 30 minute train ride). After hours we found absolutely nobody. We really felt like we had a good day plan and there was somebody else in the area. So when we finally got home that night we looked in our mail and we had 2 letters. One for a missionary who I replaced. And the second was from the mission office. We opened it excitedly and it was a referral. She lived just a few bus station stops farther than where we were contacting. So probably a 10 minute walk. It was great, so we called her up and she wanted a Book of Mormon. So we are bringing it by as soon as we can. 

The Lord really does work in amazing ways. We try all we can and then the Lord blesses us with more than we can imagine. The trick isn't to ask why don't miracles happen. It's instead why am I not seeing the miracles that go on every single day

I Love you

Elder Kinghorn

May 6, 2013

Dear Everybody

Well this week has been a good week. Well we had lots of stuff fall out again, but that's ok. That's life as a missionary. I didn't know it could happen so much, but oh well. We are trying. But a good thing is that R. is really progressing well. He loves meeting with us.  And whenever we make out another appointment he always says, “Ok Siebzehn uhr five on the clock Heiligen der Letzen Tage.” It's great. We have gone over all of the lessons with him and just have a few more commandments to go over. But he really likes them. Last week we were talking about personal revelation and he loved it. He thought it was amazing we could receive revelation. Then also we talked about him receiving the priesthood and how he would be a priest. And he said, “My dad always wanted me to be a priest but I didn't make it. I guess I would actually become one.” Then he'd ask us about the baptism with the Holy Ghost. He doesn't care so much for the baptism by immersion. Like ya, it's ok ,but the baptism with the Holy Ghost he is way excited for. And wants it as soon as he is ready for baptism. 

Sadly Frau W. wasn't able to meet with us on Friday. We went to her house and she left a note saying call this number so we did. She tried to talk to us but it sounded like a million kids were using her like monkey bars. So she was baby sitting. She really appreciates that we are trying to come. We called her today and she thought it was nice that we remembered her and that she would look at her planner and maybe tonight meet and if not than next week. She is a super nice lady. 

Oh also this week we have mission tour. So a general authority is going to come and speak to us. I forget his name. He is a seventy from Europe I think. But that's on Friday so every missionary in the german part of the mission is going to Munich. So it will be my third time there. In this mission we don't go to mission hq very often. 

But we do have some other really good news. So this week we are basically booked with time. Between members, investigators and less actives (with the hours of travel in between) our week is full, which isn't bad as a missionary. Ya, we aren't like stateside missionaries with a car who's travel time is 5 minutes. But we still have a lot going on. So, hopefully it doesn't all fall out again. But not much we can do about that. 

It's crazy to think my year mark is right around the corner. Missions go by so freaking fast. Then the second year goes by way faster than the first I've heard. That's crazy to think about.  It shows how much every day counts

Well to let you know I did get you something for christmas. Problem is it's still just sitting in my apartment. So don't feel too bad about it. But you can ship stuff to me I don't care. Just as long as it's not an enormous door that I have to ship home. If it's small enough that you'd be fine carrying it to the Williams than go ahead. And using the truck doesn't count as carrying it.

That's funny about prom. JJ is quite the character. He makes me laugh every time I see him. I wonder where he will go on his mission. I bet he had fun at prom. That's weird to think about. I remember when Michael was going to prom. Well Jason and Michael. I was just about to ship out. That's crazy. When JJ leavs I'll be just about to get home from my mission. I won't see that kid for quite a long time. 

That's really cool about the dogs and cancer. Why don't they just use dogs to diagnose everyone? I know it would take a lot of time and money. But hey, it would work. 

And it's cool how the Lord really has us go to each calling for a reason. He knew you knew how to work with the youth so he sent you there to make a bridge between the residents and the youth. That's just how it goes.

That's a great quote about the spiritual gifts. I think I'll use that in district meeting tomorrow. They are every Tuesday and cost 50 euro from travel. It shows how important a lot of the meetings are. Mission tour is going to cost thousands of euro. It shows the importance of us gathering together to learn the word of God. Lots of people don't realize just how important it is for us to gather together. Learning from each other is one of the most important things we can do. That includes home teaching and every other teaching opportunity we are given.

And spotify I remember that from BYU. I used it all the time. Way better than pandora. I stopped using I tunes from my computer. 

c’ya sunday.

I Love you

Elder Kinghorn

P.S. 15:30 here I'll be calling

April 29, 2013

Dear Family

Well transfer calls were last week. And Elder F. and I are staying together for one more here in Ulm. And hopefully that should mean summer is here. We had a couple of really really warm days this past week. Elder K. and I were on an austausche last week. (he is the one from Ireland and he's going to Austria next transfer) And it was really warm-sweating. And sadly President Miles said we couldn't roll up our sleeves. So that is kind of a bummer when It's super hot. I could wear short sleeves, but here in Germany people look at you like you're crazy for wearing a short sleeve shirt with a tie. But that's life. Anyways on this exchange we spent like 6 hours contacting in this little village called Buch, which means book. That was interesting for a name. But we found quite a few people. By that we found 4 maybe's. But oh well. We tried our best. Then the family we had an appointment with, they were shocked that we found so many. 

So we have some sad news. So O, the guy who has read tons of the Book of Mormon. Well he was too sick all last week to meet with us. So we haven't met with him yet. I wish we could, but eh that's life. 

Ok so our new ward mission leader. His name is K. He is German, but not really German. He is like, “Hey what's up” and a huge hug. He’s lways joking and way funny. Then he has this Phillipino wife. She is way funny too. She talks to us in an English German mix. It's quite entertaining. Who knows Cody could end up coming home with a girl like that. Well hopefully not come home but go back and then come back with her. That would be way funny. Cody-super white boy with a Phillipino wife. It would just work perfect. 

Anyways but Frau W. (the russian) we are going to meet with her this Friday and then she said she'd come to church this next Sunday. She really wants to know more about the church. She already cleared up the trinity. She said that confused her. Now it's no problem. Then R. is going well. We are meeting with him tomorrow and he is also loving the Book of Mormon. Well the Pearl of Great Price. He really likes the Joseph smith history. And he is coming to church this week. He is also starting to live the Word of Wisdom. Last week he made the commitment to give up caffeinated coffee. Then after that we'll do black tea. And then he doesn't drink or smoke which makes it easy. 

Well madrid lost bad. 4 1. Like it's going to be Dortmund vs. Bayern. Spain just isn't going to cut it. Ok maybe. But Bayern will win. Jason will just have to lose. People here take football seriously (soccer). It's definitely not a small thing. 

Well I've got to go.

I Love you

Elder Kinghorn

Goppingen District- Kelly, Kinghorn, Fletcher, Stewart, Clark

April 22, 2013

Dear Family

Well this week was great. We worked really hard. And things did not go according to our plans, but oh well. So we had 5 lessons this week, with 6 or 7 that fell out( one was just come by and we can talk but he didn't want to when we got there, that's the 7th). But we did do a lot of contacting. And luckily our super contacting days were super nice weather. God didn't want us to be miserable in the rain. Thankfully. I don't even know how many doors and people on the street we talked to. But oh well we tried our best. And that's what matters. 

Also on Tuesday we had interviews with President. Our apartment was running low on Book of Mormons, so we ordered a lot in assorted languages-2 boxes of German, 1 box of English, then who knows what else. It was more than what the Visitors Centers have on display to show off how cool they are. This would be impossible to carry by hand, so we brought my suitcase to fill it full. One of the wheels already kind of died, so I was like oh whatever, kind of expecting it to die. So, we fill it full of books (literally full) and start taking it from Stuttgart back to Ulm. By the time we get to the apartment the wheels are ground down to the point where it's pretty much just dragging. From now on in my mission I'll just drag one of the suitcases every transfer. But on the bright side that's less weight when It gets weighed on the airplane in one year. 

The guy who called last week, O., he has been reading the Book of Mormon and now he has read 200 pages of it. That's quite a bit. We are setting up an appointment today because he gets his schedule Sunday nights. Yup and then R. is doing great. His baptismal date was pushed back till the 25th of May. (also the same as someone in Wiener Neustadt that I worked a lot with C. It's May instead of August) but he came to church on Sunday and loved it. After church he said, "Mein Nachbar wurde sagen das war der Hammer!" (My neighbor would say that's the hammer meaning super-cool.) And we are meeting tomorrow and hopefully another day this week. And the other self referral from last week fell out. We are trying to meet with her but it isn't working out so well for us. Hopefully it works.

So we haven't really been to any museums. But the BMW is in Munich, so too far away. And pictures, well I've taken some. But not a ton. Sorry. I'll do better with it. And the giant church is helpful when we get lost. We just look and see where it is then we aren't lost anymore haha.

It is true how much God works with people. As missionaries we don't do much. God does 100% of the work. Ok, not 100 but 99.9999999% and we just do a little bit in God’s name. That's something I've really learned is that god really looks out for us, his children. 

I Love you.
Elder Kinghorn

April 15, 2013

Dear Everyone.

So this week has been really cool. First of all, R’s  we pushed his baptismal date back a month. He just needs more time to get ready. He is really progressing and will get there, just needs time. We are meeting with him again on Thursday. (German culture meeting twice a week is a ton.) So he called the church and wanted us to come by. Which never happens. Like it happens to missionaries once on their mission. Most of the time never.

But last week someone else called the church. She is from Russia or Ukraine(her accent) and we are going by on Wednesday for a lesson with her and her daughter. They saw the website and wanted to hear more from us. So that's two times in a transfer. It gets crazier. 

So earlier today as we were buying groceries, a member called us and someone had called the church again to meet with us. So of course we were thinking, “Holy cow this is nuts” He said come by Monday or Friday, so we went thinking we didn't have much planned for Pday. So we went and met with him not too long ago. He is like 80 and has tons of religious stuff and music stuff. To get his phone number I called him and smoke on the water started playing. It was way funny. He also had an apocolipta album. I didn't see the others. But still it was great. He had a Book of Mormon about 40 years ago but moved and lost it in moving along with a lot of other books. So he wanted to get the best books back and wanted a Book of Mormon. It was so exciting to hear that. So we are going back next week. He said for us to call next week because he doesn't know his plan yet. 

Oh and on Saturday we had a finding day with Göpingen and Ellwangen. So we were in Göpingen's area and they asked who wants to go here. So I said sure, and we went there. We had for about 3 hours of finding planned. In the first hour we found 3 people who had interest to hear more. And then we doored this one house. And this guy comes to the door on his phone, probably 25 years old. So I'm thinking “oh dang”. Oh well. So I tell him our message is about families and how we can live forever. He said, “Oh I do too, you're Mormons right?” We say ya and he lets us in. It was so cool. He is from the apostolic (I can't remember the name in english) something church. His wife was there. So we talked for a while and they gave us lunch. They were so nice. It was so great. So they gave us their card and want us (the sisters) to come back or call or whatever. Then we met up with the other missionaries and told them what happened.  They were excited for us. Then we went to the center of the city for an hour and a half to try to find more people. And I think every person there had no time to talk to us. Or at least that's what they said.

When you said If I had done some sight seeing I thought no. Then I realized ya, I have. It's way cool here. We take trains through really cool places all the time. We are just immune to it. Like Stuttgart train station, you'd be saying how cool it is. And for us it's just another place. Really the sights are cool but the people are way cooler. That's something that nobody realizes before they go on a mission. How little it matters where you go for how great your mission is. Its really all about the people. Ya, I guess having a giant church is cool, but it's not as cool as just talking with people. 

The work here is really starting to accelerate. This week we have I don't even know how many lessons planned. We already had one today and we have one more tonight. So our Pday was cut short by about 3 hours. Oh well. That's the least of our worries isn't it? Then we have stuff every day just packed. It's exciting. Saturday we have 3 less active lessons. So this will be great. 

And I now that it's warm there are really two things I miss. Golf and wakeboarding. It was so cold here recently. And now it's finally summer. There are no clouds and it's just sunny and warm. Great day to wakeboard or golf. 

Love Elder D. Kinghorn

April 8, 2013

Dear Family,

This week has been awesome. Last Thursday and Friday there was a conference meeting thing in München. I saw Elder Hyatt there, and all of my last companions except for Elder B. he is home now. But was such a great time. We learned so much on how to be better missionaries and how to help the other missionaries that we work with. 

General conference was amazing. Sadly we have as of now only watched 3 sessions. The other two we missed because of, well, the weird times. So we have to watch them sometime later. We learned so much, but the best part was we had someone named Frau M. (no idea how to spell her name) She is a referral from someone. Well almost. She hasn't met with us yet. I don't think she quite understands that's what we do as missionaries. But we were in Ellwangen for conference and she sat next to me. I could totally feel that she was loving it. Then afterwards we showed her the baptismal font and she was like, whoa this is cool. And do you baptize adult? But then she said, “Oh I've already been baptized when I was a baby”.... So we have to work on that. But I can totally see her getting baptized one day. She loves the church and wants to come every Sunday to church. Oh and on the way back from Ellwangen we had a long drive. But before our drive our tire was flat-with no spare....... So that took quite a while to fix and get back in order. 

Last week I was on an austausch (split) with Elder P (the one Elder Hyatt trained) and we found 5 potentials in one day I think. So that's just awesome. One of them we had the feeling would get baptized. So on Saturday we took the really long tram to go see him and he said basically no. So that was a heart breaker. But I think he'll get baptized one day with his whole family.

I Love you family

Elder Devon Kinghorn

Easter- April 1, 2013

Dear Family

So our investigators are making slow progress. R. we had another lesson with him. (He cancelled the first one last week so we only had one). We watched the restoration film with him and he really enjoyed it. Also we found this awesome Romanian lady. She speaks really good english and german so the language isn't a problem. She is really nice.

So this past week was Easter. In Germany that means no school for two weeks.  Easter is quite good here.  The B. Family had us over yesterday. We had this awesome fondue. Instead of cheese or oil we used chicken broth, well similar to it. So it tastes really good with strips of chicken or shrimp or mushrooms. You should try it out soon. (Cheese fondue is just unbeatable though.)  I learned how to make it, so it will be great. They are way cool with 4 kids. One of which is a super happy 8 month old baby. He just smiles and laughs all day without having a desire to crawl. So we had fondue together then a few rounds of Uno (I've played a lot of Uno on my mission), then a spiritual thought about the resurrection, then we were on our way. Oh ya, and today is also a holiday. Every single store is closed. Literally every store. Even the Turkish imbiss (snack) stands are closed. 

We went running this morning. (The first time in quite a while for me. Two transfers ago with Elder W we ran to the church, played ping pong then ran home). We ran to the munster (giant church), around it and back and there was absolutely nobody. We passed 3 people and we were in the busiest part of town. 

Ok so this past week has been freezing cold in Ulm. Like really, really cold! And everyone is expecting warm weather. So everyone has been getting sick. Our branch president got sick. Half of the ward is sick. And everyone who said they'd come to church is sick at the moment. It was really sad. Literally everyone was sick. And Friday morning I felt pretty bad, but we had an appointment at 5. So we decided to take half of the day off to rest so I'd get better. But at 2 pm C. called us and told us she was sick so we couldn't come. So everyone was sick. I got it from the zone leader on an austausch (exchange) and then Saturday Elder F. (his companion) got really bad and almost died (not really). but thought we were talking about stuff when we really weren't. So we stayed in Saturday too. It was really boring. I almost died. And during the day everyone cancelled to come to church. Bummer, and on Easter Sunday too! 

Elder F. and I are getting along great. Maybe a bit too well. So we'll have to work to make sure we don't get distracted. 

So in Sigmaringen lives A. He was baptized 2 years ago. We do service with him. And it's a sweet city. You'd enjoy it. Actually I've just walked through it but it has a cool castle in the middle. We visit a special needs kid named E. and he is awesome. One on one is cooler than a dance I think. So we are his friend and he loves missionaries. His mom lives too far away to be able to visit him that often. 

I love you

Elder Kinghorn