CHI CHI CHI, LE LE LE, CHILE!

Disclaimer: There is no picture with this post because after 8 1/2 weeks in the MTC, we have received ZERO pictures from our dear missionary. We stopped receiving letters a few weeks in. Apparently we should have been sending stamps instead of cookies.

After two long (believe me Elder Kimball, I understand) but valuable months at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, Elder William Kimball flew to Chile (Santiago East) yesterday to begin the remaining 22 months of his 2 year LDS Mission.

Young men and women spend anywhere from 3-12 weeks at the MTC learning how to teach the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and usually studying another language. From personal experience, I know the work they are called to do all over the world is the most sacred, inspired, important work and the best thing they could possibly be doing with their time! Not only are they humbly inviting people to learn more about their Savior Jesus Christ, about a book called the Book of Mormon and about a boy who was called to be a prophet named Joseph Smith, but they are (frequently obliviously) learning more about themselves, the Latter-day Saint Church, religion, culture, psychology, sociology, cooking, cleaning, motivation and leadership in a 2-year time period than they have learned in their entire life up to that point!

As evidenced in emails he has been sending us, it is clear Elder Kimball has already learned a lot (starting with week 1 up through last week):

I miss you all loads, but the grand thing is is that there's so much to do I don't have time to be distraught about it. THE MTC IS LIKE YOUR BEST FRIEND(S)! Take EFY and "multiply it by six!.............." I will be sending part of a written letter later, because there is some info I would like you guys to have. If you could please send my regards to everyone and tell them I am reading their letters, I just can't respond to everything...My first meal was steak and potatoes and yes I ate everything on my plate(s) :)

There's something here called the free box! Any elder puts anything in there it's yours for the taking (I have a box of Nerf Guns!)

I'm in a great district...It's almost liked we planned it in the pre-existence!


I'm pretty sure every missionary here feels like the prophet Mormon..."not even a hundredth part can I write." And it's so true. We have the coolest teachers here and we have the best district and zone. We have just about the best everything! I miss you all and love you all and Can't wait for the second coming so I can remember and tell everything to you all.


Well...it's been 5 weeks!! Certainly hasn't felt that long. It honestly still seems like I just got here yesterday...and if things go according to regular schedule for the MTC, then I'll be a Hosting Missionary this Wednesday!!! The "homework" here has been bumped up a notch since we got Hermano Ellot to be our teacher! He is way cool. He's also more "you can do this, (at least with the Lord's help), so do it! It's good practice for the field, I guess.

MTC is really spelled G - R - E - A - T - !

I know the Gospel is True! I know that we will be blessed if we are obedient!!! I know we can be happy also if we are obedient!

Things going on here: I finished reading the Miracle of Forgiveness! It's pretty powerful - I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone!

Teaching is going great (except for it could still be better). But it's been getting better!

We should be leaving for Chile in about 2 weeks! I can't wait to get out, meet my trainer and mission president and get to work!

Well...Oh yeah! We got a really great lesson the other day from Hermano Jensen...HOLY SMOKES! He is a great teacher! And he gave us some study work and we'll also be having another great lesson Saturday evening from him.

I'm not sure there is too much to tell...most of it is small stuff...eating, sleeping, and studying...All what's left that's cool that I can say is that MIRACLES DO HAPPEN! I remember a saying, "If the church were not true, the 19 year old boys that go out on missions would have sunk the church, years ago"...and so very true! The Gospel is real and it blesses the faithful young men and women who go out and serve missions. The church will grow! But, as President Hinckley said, "Activity is the genius of God's church." I believe there will most certainly come a time when it IS every member a missionary because either you'll be for God, and will be able to stand the trials that will come your way, or we'll not be as hardworking as we should be in the church, in inviting and teaching, and because of our lax nature, we'll lose our testimonies and our good standing with God, and we will be left to ourselves to deal with our problems. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, "As we come closer to Christ, the path of discipleship becomes narrower and narrower..." keeping the commandments probably will take more faith and sacrifice in being obedient. I know the President, his Counselors and the Quorum of the Twelve are Special Witnesses and receive guidance to direct the church. THE HEAD OF THIS CHURCH IS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST - the prophets just speak His words. So listen.

Give my love to ALL the family, everywhere - learn from your own and others mistakes so you don't have to make them as well

And the Church is True.

Love you all

Elder Kimball

After saying "Sé que nuestro Padre Celestial nos bendecirá al guardar los mandamientos," he was gone from the other end of the phone. I love you Elder Kimball! See you in 22 months!

The Infamous Day

June 8th, 2011 will not go down as my best 24 hours. I was told at work that I would no longer have a job as soon as a replacement was found who was willing to stay longer than I wanted to, I found a relationship with a good friend going sour seemingly beyond my control, and then, driving 12 mph on the beltway as it had transformed into its preferred 5pm parking lot status, taking one hand off the wheel, apparently subconsciously under the impression I could handle 12 mph on a jam-packed highway even if 100% of my attention was not on the road, I was pulled over.

After refuting the police officer's claim that I had a mug in one hand and something else in the other by illustrating there wasn't a single beverage container in my entire vehicle ("Who is driving this car?! There is no one in control of this vehicle!"), I was given a $140 moving violation for negligent driving in a careless and imprudent manner endangering property, life and person. Subsequently walking into my Econ. class half an hour late, brooding over then and later that night about the unjustness of our "justice" system and the self-serving and selfish attitude of my favorite policeman, I thought it had been overall one of the worst days EVER!

The next morning, I found out Brynn Barton, another Murray High Spartan had been killed in a bike accident, a hit and run. All the sudden I realized how childish I had been the day before. Boy was I lucky I had another day in front of me, I had my family, my friends and some more time to learn, grow and experience LIFE! I join with many others who are praying for her family's comfort and that the person who hit her will face the consequences of their actions. Here's to putting the daily dog poop in our lives behind us and remembering how many blessings we have!

Origins

On October 31, 2009 I walked out my door on the 4th floor of an apartment building in Cluj-Napoca, Romania to find dog poop and one kiwi fruit occupying the same 1 square foot space on the landing. Aside from having a strong desire to regurgitate breakfast, I was intrigued. How do two seemingly different objects come to be in such close proximity to each other?? The wonderfully fabulous Sora V., who resides in my top ten favorite people in the entire world list, kindly posed for a picture:

after which, I laughed to myself while the aforementioned Sveta Vasylyeva likely mused on how strange her companion was. Perhaps it was the state of eternal exhaustion I seemed to be functioning in or the two hours I had just spent attempting to create analogies and metaphors tied to scripture stories and religious principles in personal and companion study, but that combination seemed like the perfect example of how nonsensical and purportedly messed up life can seem. I therefore vowed in the elevator ride down that kiwi and dog poop would somehow become my life maxim, motto or mascot, if you will, for putting life events into perspective and proper order. And so it begins...