EKJY Out

ekjy signing out….
thats it. no more.

Kiel’s Last Update

haha no im freaking out. this was the best weekend of my mission i dont want to end it. but at the same time im so excited. but packing is killing me this 50 pound rule is tough i hope i can make it im leaving behind a ton of stuff. i was up way late last night and got up early this morning to do it again. im pretty close to being done and have said to mostly everyone. so its all over. tonight 2 more farewells and im gone.
crazy huh?

Kiel’s Update 7/9/07

well really a wierd thing to think this is the last real email i will send you guys at home… everything know is becoming weird…
time is good though we still have our baptism going through this saturday so that is a good way to go out. right now its tough just because i feel like i have been in smyrna for so long im spent out. if i werent going home i would be definitly asking to be transfered. i have loved smyrna but its a tough area. probably the second toughest in the mission for spanish just because there are no members (we have a total of maybe 20 including kids) and the spanish arnt very populated. but the ones who are here are so awesome. we have like 5 familys who just wont do anything but love us so its hard to just let them go but at the same time in 100 degree weather in the heart of july with nothing else to do its hard to find new people at the same time. but im loving it and we will see what happens when we leave.
but this last week was good we recovered from being sick then had the 4th. it was fun, elder perez and i really wanted to play soccer one last time and luck has it we did. it was the first soccer field i played on in nashville and also the last. it was awesome. about 80 people showed up so we had 4 teams rotating in i loved it. im going to miss everyone here. then we had a hungrying (well i should say i had) for outback so we spoiled ourselfs and went. then we visited some memebers with the english elders and listened to the fireworks. we were instructed not to tract or contact just to visit and hang out because of danger i guess but it was a fun day. then saturday was elder mcfalls birthday so we had a good dinner with an investigator imelda im pretty sure i told you about her, she made shrimp and steak fajitas, so good.
then sunday they anounced elder mcfalls and i depatures so that was awkward. then they asked us to speak. so i think i have the record for 3 consecutive sundays haha. should be fine though.
today for my birthday it was amazing. we had time to play basketball this morning from 9-11 then we drove to this diner down in the boonies to eat with someother missionarys, elder behnke my old companion bought it for me. bless his heart (since i know he will be reading this but just know blake i love you for real haha) then we came to the mall just to look around and just for walking in pac sun and trying on pants they gave us 10 dollars free in the store. for 2 bucks i bought a sweet shirt and a pretty cool sweater thing, then came home and got my transformers package. pretty good birthday haha.
this will be a crazy fast week too with a baptism coming. we have normal day tommorow then interviews and my last district meeting on wensday thursday im getting my first and last professional haircut on my mission to look good coming home, saturday a meeting in the morning and baptism at night, then last sunday we have 2 churchs to go too (because of the new stake thing we are going to both for now) and i have to discourse. then thats it. packing and flying.
im scared. im going to be sending my books and prolly one or 2 other boxs depending on how it turns out. im not sure. other than that i should be fine.
well i think thats a good email. you dont deserve more just kidding. i think i answered all your questions. if not……ill tell you in person next week.
your long lost son….
ekjy

Kiel’s Update 7/2/07

well no email but i guess once you stop letters emails arnt far behind….
this last week was crazyyyy….first we had my last district meeting with president. which is wierd. then on saturday we had our huge mission outing. it was fun. we met up at 9 to listen to elder christopherson of the presidency of the seventy. he talked for a while then we had a quick lunch and went to collect food for a food drive the mission put on. we got a lot of food which was good. we are going to try to make it in church news but we will see. we took a whole mission photo then went to dinner. then had the mormon tabernacle choir concert. it was a good day. long but good. we got up at 6 and got home about 12. so 18 hours in the hot sun. we woke up yesterday dieing. elder larsen didnt feel good on saturday but sunday me and elder mcfall were dead. sick to our stomachs and just in pain. we went to sacrament but had to come home, so it was a first in my mission i missed church. and then today we are recovering i finally could hold down some soup so we missed a district meeting, also a first in my mission. all i can say is getting sick when your older sucks. i dont know what it is. i used to be in pain but now id rather die. i hate being sick.
but we should be good to go tommorow. wensday we are having a get together with the spanish branchs and missionarys then next week interviews with president and its my last week in the mission. its so weird. days are going by sooooo slow. one hand is ready to pack and go home the other is freaked out and quite sad to be leaving. we will see what happens.
thats all i have to for you this week. next week will be my last time to email home…..
weird…
im turning 21 just remember presents when i get home….
ekjy

Kiel’s Letter 6/18/07

ok i wont complain. i was pretty sure i wasnt going to get a letter for the rest of my mission and have a great way to start my homecoming talk. haha
anyways we hung out again today with elder faerber. played basketball, we talked a little bit about the wards and stuff who i should look for. should be fun.
this last week was a tough one for us here in smyrna. since im going home i want to go out with a bang so def some baptisms. but the problem is none of the people we had wanted to move so we just droped them all. no investigators. so we are just finding all day long which isnt fun in the first place, and the heat we are having. menos.
anyways it should be good though. if we dont put a baptism date with someone new this week they wont get baptised on my mission. sad, scary, , all the above.
this last week we had mission council, when all the leaders get together. we havnt had one in a while it was good since it was my last chance to go haha. but we heard from all the leaders and heard from the defensive coach for the nashville hockey team which was awesome. he is a member and lived in detroit from 78-82 or something like that i asked him if he knew any yagers he said he didnt he was in the romneys stake i think you were too so maybe you know him. his name is brent peterson. he played for the red wings for a while. he was funny.
and tommorow is my last zone conference. which means i have to give my farwewell testimony. scary. i really didnt think i ever would. plus the thought comes im turning 21. thats freaky.
and what are you talking about dad get a job. i will. but you will be buying me cool gagdets too. you better. why did you choose the tl? lost sounds good. i dunno about battlestar though. gilmore girls. menos. but what about 24? commmmmmmon we have to have 24 what gym do you go to dad?
how did sister mitchell hook you up with elder larsens mom? haha thats funny! he thought it was cool to have both our parents talking haha. anyways he is doing great, his spanish is good, its crazy though to see him and to really not know anything. and think of me (who still feels like him) but to realize I’m the oldest missionary in the mission. creapy.
i think thats all i have, oh no thats cool about eddie and lori. speaking of brea, remember president johnson from our old stake? well with the new stake formed he just got called to be in the presidency haha so 2 years ago i left having my stake president being president johnson, now im leaving having my stake president still be the same president johnson. im trying to see if i can run into him but so far i havnt
hope everything is well, prepare for me! im coming
ekjy

Kiel’s Letter 6/11/07

well lifes good… longely since i havnt gotten a letter from my parents in who knows how long. but what can you do.
i cant believe how time is flying. me and elder mcfall will hit 23 months on wensday. crazy. anyways our greenies name is elder larsen. he is from mesa arizona. he is way cool. im excited to be with him. trying to give him all i can in the next few weeks.
we went on my last exchange last week i got to go with elder young, who happens to be in antioch where we served together so it was a reunion from almost 2 years ago. it was great. ironic my last exchange was with elder young and my last companion elder mcfall.
we are trying to find alot of people right now. we have great familys but arnt moving so we are trying to find but thats hard in smryna there isnt a whole lot of hispanics. and its sooo hot. its dreadful in a tie.
but other than that things are going good. the new stake has been formed but we havnt been told which one we will be attending yet. one of the zone leaders in the new zone is elder faerber. so he came down and hung out with me again. i missed him! he is actually in mount juliet where i used to be so thats fun.
anyway other than that not to much to report. i hope you havent all died and thats why i dont get letters. but im guessing its just not important anymore…..
heh…
ekjy

Kiel’s Letter 6/4/2007

hahaha my dad has such a posh job. i cant believe he ever can complain thats sweet.
anyways yes jamie i know who survivor is. you keep telling me im just like my father and you doubt i know who survivor is? sheesh. haha

[Note: the above photo is Kiel's Dad with Survivor]
anyways we are staying. we are training. and we will die together. we have 6 weeks its crazy. elder beckstrom is down here with us he goes home tommorow. thats nuts. i have been around him my whole mission pretty much. i’m going to miss him. in case you dont know which one he is, i burnt my shirt with him. not elder maher but the other one who was with us. i cant believe he is going home.
but i cant believe im going home. im kinda scared to train too. im not quite sure what this kid is going to be like. he better be cool. but we will see. either way i just want to help him know everything i know. but its pretty funny i keep telling everyone elder mcfall is pregnant. haha they look at us funny but i think its a good joke. then they ask why he is the one who is pregnant, we says its because he is fat. so im the father he gets to be the mother. haha we had to rearrange our apartment so its wierd now, the poor new kid gets to sleep on the couch haha. we go to pick him up tomomrow morning so ill tell you his name and everything next week.
besides that things are good. we went to the temple for the last time last week, my temple recomend actually just expired weird huh? i have to get a new one from president lords. anyways we have some sweet people we are working with but they are on the verge of doing something or not doing anything so elder mcfall are trying to find alot of people. so its a good time for the kid to get here. he gets a few people who should get baptized but we will have to tract with him. he is going to keep elder mcfall and i in line.
i did get the medicine thanks, i should be fine with everything. im going to cut it close this transfer with money im hitting my body up hard before i get home so no more soda, no fast food, and i got a work out plan and stuff. so with that said eating healthy is alot more expensive then eating unhealthy. so pray i dont just starve myself. haha but dont send any more candy!
ive got to prepare
well i think thats it. ill let you know what it is like to be a father next week…..
haha de hecho voy a ser un padre solo un pocito mas viejo que mi papa. raro. pero pues ni modo ojala que este dieta vale la pena, por que si no estaria gastando mucho tiempo en el cual hubiera estado disfrutando mi ultimos dias comiendo…..
ekjy

Letter from Kiel 5/21/07

well i dont have a lot of time or anything much to say.
we had interviews this last week it went well. it seriously was the best interview ive ever had and maybe the most spiritual expierence in my life. ill have to explain more later but i just asked him some questions and i knew he was like inside of me. it was awesome he analyzed me and told me some sweet things. it was awesome. he also said me and elder mcfall are staying together and probably going to train together but we will see. other than that nothing big….
then on friday we got to see elder coleman. it was ok. it wasnt as good as last year with elder madsen but it was awesome. he talked forever abotu his conversion and missionary work as a whole and how we need to get more people out to church. it was pretty much a personal lesson it was just us 20 spanish missionarys. when he got there he wanted to meet us so he wanted our names and our home stakes, but i didnt know our home stake so i lied and said our old one. after i shook his hand i went to see president and sister lords i confesed i just lied to a general authority, they laughed and said it was ok. it was pretty funny. i love sister lords!
then on saturday we brought some members and our recent convert and an investigator to a fireside elder coleman was giving. it was good. we had to translate so that was fun, i enjoy translating im not the best at it alot of vocab i dont know but its fun. my comp isnt a big fan though he didnt like to do it. their were a ton of members from everywhere so that was good i got to see them and elder faerber was there too. i miss him haha. but ill get to see him at least once more for the motab concert in june.
suposedly they are going to put the new stake into one spanish ward so we will be a power house and pretty much all the spanish members i know will be in the same ward which is a sweet way to go out. but we still dont know about that and wont till next week. so we will see. but thats all i got here.
still waiting for letters…….haha
ekjy

Letter from Kiel 5/14/07

well i dont have to much to say since we just talked yesterday haha…
but just for a brief update….
this wensday we have interviews with president so i should be able to know whats going on next transfer with all the crazy things going on. and then on friday we have elder coleman who is coming to visit on friday he is going to meet with just us spanish. then on saturday he will meet with the whole area for a mission fireside. so i hope i get to go to that one in english but we have to find an investigator who can speak english. so we will see.
other than that really nothing else to report. i think i answered all your questions and all that but i guess i just write a little more about the new stake they are putting in and you can look at it on a map. ok they are putting smyrna, lavergne, lebanon, mt juliet, hermitage, smith springs, antioch, and maybe west nashville so basicly that whole center part into a new stake. but thats about 90% of all hispanic members who would make a huge ward if we went together but there would be 14 missionarys in the one branch and i dont think president would like that but i dont know what else we would do. haha it will be interesting for the next batch of missionarys. this new stake will be the nashville stake then the rest will be the same. its going to be crazy but its awesome we get to see a new stake in the mission. especially in the south… who knew? haha
well that its. i guess ill be talking to ya in a few months….
ekjy

Kiel’s Letter 5/8/07

ok well lets see how well i can do this….
things here are good it was kind of a frustrating week i guess… we had a doctors appointment for me on tuesday and they realized it was supposed to be my last from missionary medical. so i said man that sucks but i have the one from home. and they were like huh? you have another one? you should have given us that one you wouldnt have had to paid a copay. i guess i just never realized that you could use 2 insurances. but then i talked to sister lords and she called salt lake and they said 24 times….we only approved 3. so i was worried that was going to come back to kill us. so i talked to the doctors (who love me by the way) and she was like no i called and they approved 24 and i wrote it down but ill call again and check and so she called and they said 24 again. so i hope its alright. im not quite sure what will come out of that.
but so it turns out no more physical therapy. it was fun and helped alot so i hope i can keep it up. they were sad i was leaving. they loved me and elder perez. we brought them lunch and the boss lady wants to adopt me haha. so i just have to stretch and try to do what i can at home. most of it i can do i know how but it was better there with the machines and i had time set apart. so but this will give us more time to work in the closing part of our mission.
besides that not to much going on elder mcfall and i continue to work with some great people but just wont move along. they talk but dont walk. so we have to help them. me and elder mcfall get along well but next transfer there are 5 elders coming out. so we might 1) train 2) get a third elder since we both go home at the same time or 3) i could move again. i dont want to move for just 6 weeks but it will be fine. i cant believe its ending.
this week we had a sweet pday we played frisbee golf then we played basketball then we had a member buy all 10 of us missionarys chilis (she actually works there so its free) then we played volleyball. and we have been playing basketball every morning for an hour just getting up early. but man im wasted. i was so tired this morning.
this week we have zone conference and we get to play baseball. it will be fun. last time president played and sported his red sox hat. i was never more proud. so hopefully he can again. then we will get to call home on sunday. yea i can call at night. we havent even talked abouit it yet but we have church at 11-2 our time so i should be fine to do it at night we will call and set it up with you on saturday.
i think thats it. there are some other things but ill put those in smaller emails haha.
miss you guys glad you had fun…
ekjy