Monday, April 27, 2015

Tender Mercies

In Elder Kinville's last update, he talked about having dinner with a family from Rexburg.

On Sunday morning I (Elder Kinville's oldest sister) received a text from a Mom of a cheerleader I use to coach in Rexburg, asking where my brother was serving. I told her the Scotland/Ireland Mission. She immediately responded saying that she had a friend who lived in Ireland who just posted a picture on Instagram and she thought it was of Elder Kinville.

Sure enough it was. What a HUGE blessing!



He looks so happy and well fed! We are thankfully for tender mercies like these.

Weekly Update #3

 Top of the morning to you from green Ireland! That's right, I'm out of the MTC and into the field! My first area is the Dublin, Ireland area. We cover most of the southern bits of Dublin.

     On Friday, we (Me and the 10 other missionaries to serve in Scotland/Ireland) woke up early and rode a bus up to Edinburgh to meet President Brown and our future companions. After arrival, we unloaded then got back onto the bus to hike Pratt's Hill, also known as Arthur's Seat. The hill looks over most of Edinburgh and the hike is challenging but gorgeous. Up there, we sang "High On A Mountain Top". It was incredible.

     Following that, we returned to the mission home for introductions and in-field basic training as to taking care of our flats and whatnot. We were then assigned to our companions and area. My companion is Elder Oldham, from Utah/Oregon. He's been out ten months, seems swell, and I am excited to work with him these next five weeks. 

     On Saturday, we woke up, bused to the ferry, rode the ferry to Belfast, then bused down to Dublin. The ride was great. In Ireland, every sign is in two different languages: English and Gaelic. It's so marvelous, much more marvelous than seeing Spanish and English on every sign. 

     Yesterday, we went to the church building where I was introduced to some of the ward. I was blessed with the opportunity to bless the sacrament with Elder Oldham, give the closing prayer in sacrament meeting, teach Gospel Principles, and was assigned to give a talk in two weeks time. Incredibly fast-paced, but I got this. Don't fret. 

     After church, we went to teach an investigator, Anthony, with Brother Allaman. That lesson went great and we did extend an invitation for baptism to Anthony, who then accepted it when he's overcome his problems in his life. I feel incredibly blessed to have had that chance.
     
     Then, Brother and Sister Allaman were kind enough to invite us over to dinner at their house. They're from Utah, and she grew up in Rexburg! Crazy, yeah! The dinner was marvelous, so no one should worry about me starving. After that, we visited an older gent who's in the hospital, and we talked with him a bit. He's a member and I am so blessed to be serving here. Kid you not, I'm loving the mission. Dismiss all worries now and forever, schnell. 

     I have not gotten my camera yet, but hopefully today I can get one and start sending pictures! Hopefully. Hope is good. 

     I wish you all the best as you go on with your weeks.

     Remember that Christ is standing next to us, His hand stretched out. If we lose sight of Him and notice the waves and torrents around us and we feel like we're sinking, all we have to do is reach out to Him. 

     God Speed

     Love ya'll

     Elder Kinville 

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Weekly Update #2



 Good morning to you all from sunny England today!

     Thanks for all the emails and I'll do my best to answer them as best I can in my hour.

     This week went very jolly and very well! On Thursday, we went out and did some street finding. Me and Elder Halverson went out and talked for thirty minutes with this gentleman about The Book of Mormon and ended up placing two of them total. The chap who we spoke with (Not to seem condescending or anything) was certain that Coca-Cola was more harmful than Marijuana. Very interesting, loving the English accent. It was pretty swell. No referrals, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

     Friday and Saturday went over well, nothing too top or noticeable or of report. Plenty of roleplaying though, let me tell you. On Sunday, we had another devotional and listened to an address by Elder Holland to the Provo MTC from 2006 or some other date. Very good.

     The food this week has been phenomenal. It was all good and I starve not, so no need to worry about that ever. Tomorrow, a new batch of missionaries will be entering the MTC. On Friday, I'll be heading out early in the morning (for England) to head to Scotland. Very, very excited for that! My preparation days will be on Monday, from what I've heard, so the next email should send out around then!

     What else, what else? Loving all the missionaries in our group, all of them are incredibly great and I wish you all could meet them. Went to the temple again this morning and as always that went fabulously. 
     
     This week, several of the elders in my district and out of my district asked me to draw some little pictures for them. I, of course, couldn't deny the request and drew! Plenty of fun, and plenty of gratitude for being able to do what I love to do and make people happy.

     I have not gone to the store yet, so still no camera. But don't worry! I'm going there in an hour or so, so hopefully I'll be able to snap some photos of me and the rest of my district.

     That's all from me! Hope you all are doing well, and I'll send emails on Monday.

     God Speed

     Elder Kinville

Monday, April 20, 2015

Elder Kinville's Mailing Address


Elder Kinville's Mailing Address:
Scotland/Ireland Mission
51 Spylaw Road
Edinburgh
Scotland EH10 5BP
United Kingdom



Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Weekly Update #1



Greetings to friends and family from the lovely Preston Missionary Training Centre (As spelt on the sign) in England!

     All the flights were wonderful! At Denver, I had to walk half a mile or so to get to my gate and only five minutes to do it. The flight to Manchester was great. We flew out of Newark. There, we met some other Elders who were also off to Manchester and we talked a bit. I met an Elder who was also going to Scotland and Ireland and my enthusiasm and excitement to go made some England Natives laugh that I was that way. Mucho bueno. The last buildings I saw from the US were the Empire State Building, Freedom Tower (The new world trade center, whatever it's called), and The Statue of Liberty. It was gorgeous to see them as we flew into the clouds and off to skip over the pond.

     Upon arrival at the MTC and post-orientation, we were assigned into companionships. The Elder I was assigned to was Elder Halverson, who happened to be the chap who I high-fived (Coincidence?). Also, driving on the wrong side of the road isn't so bad. It's more like you're in a mirror. And the country here, absolutely beautiful! Love it, stone walls, old houses, sheep, stone cathedrals, roundabouts, every field of grass looks like you can play golf on it. 

     I am doing extremely well and am most definitely enjoying my time here. The food is absolutely marvelous as are the instructors. With the instructors, we do small roleplays where they're investigators or less actives or whatever and we teach them and whatnot to practice people skills and learning to teach people not the lessons. Those are quite fun, but the first one we totally sucked at. My alarm clock is also beautiful. Wakes up my whole room when it goes off.

     In my room, I have two Elders from Utah, one from Washington, one from Albania, and one from Hungary. It's so swell to talk with people not from the United States. Among the missionaries, I think we have Elders from United States, Chile, Samoa, South Africa, Brazil, UK, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark (Elder Olson, by the way, swell chap as well), Mauritius, Hungary, France, Spain, Colombia, and Portugal, I believe. Such great Elders and there is such a marvelous spirit here!
     I've picked up using the word swell, because we can't use the words cool or awesome or guys. I've already been using chaps, so not to worried about guys. Swell has replaced cool and awesome, so note that.

     On Sunday we had a devotional with Elder Donaldson of the Seventy, recently released, and we found out he is going to be the new mission president of the mission I'll be off to! Our MTC President, President Preston, also spoke as well. Now he, he is a marvelous teacher and man. It's like, unreal how incredible this is.

     This morning we went to the temple, and it was a beautiful temple. It's a two minute walk from the MTC and I am so glad it is. Such a great time. The outside of the temple looks a lot like Rexburg's temple. The inside, totally different.

     One thing I regret: Not bringing a camera. My companion, however,  has one and is willing to take some photographs of me and has sent me one of me right next to the MTC sign. Today, we went to ASDA (UK's Wal-Mart) and the cameras were sold out. As soon as I can get one, I totally will and you shall be spammed with pictures of me and the Scottish countryside! Bwahah!

     The keyboard here is different. The @ sign is on the same key as ' and the ~ and # characters are on the button next to that, while " has replaced @ on 2 key and £ has replaced # on the 3 key and ¬ has replaced ~ on the key right before the 1 key. Also, next to the Z key is the | and \ key. It's pretty neat, though disorienting after working with American keyboards for such a long time.

     Feel free to ask me questions, comments, replies, but please understand my MTC preparation days are Wednesdays and therefor I cannot really reply until then. After next Wednesday I do not know when my preparation day is in the field, so I cannot say when that'll be. If you there are friends/family of mine who's email I do not have, please send it to me and I can just mass email them. 

Have a good time and do many good things!

God speed

Elder Kinville


Thursday, April 9, 2015

He Has Arrived!

Hello parents!

I have made it to the MTC safely and I am enjoying the travel. England is stunning and I am loving the country. I am safe and okay. If you can send me Father's email address so I can email it to his. Right now, I'm using the Qtruss email address. 

I hope you are doing well! I have no worries thus far.
Stay safe, God speed.

Elder Kinville