Kiel’s Letter 4/30/2007

ok well since you decided to leave the country i guess ill just send an email to nobody….
things here are good. still in smyrna which is good im really not sure what the future holds though, we have 5 elders coming out this transfer so i might get transfered and only be in my next area for 6 weeks. but then thats it i cant believe it.
my companion now is elder mcfall he is from west valley or west jorden one of those two and was in the mtc with me. ive now served with every single spanish missionary that i came out with except the one that i fly to lax with. but ive served at least on exchanges with every elder english or spanish that i go home with. its crazy there is 13 of us going home the same day. thats like a tenth of the mission.
anyways this last week i lost elder perez. i love him. he goes home with me too. we have a lot of plans for when we get home. anyways after that on friday we had the coolest day ever. we got to go to a full mission conference we have never had one of those before. all 140 of us to listen to elder callister (president lords mission president). no joke the best meeting i have ever been too. so awesome. elder callister is a genious. seriously. i have never heard anyone speak english better than he did. i was in awe. he had no notes used no scriptures but gave the best discourses ive ever heard. he used words such as shant and atestation. no umms or anything. amazing. it really was the best.
and in 2 weeks we get to heard from another 70 elder coleman he is scary though we are going to get rebuked then in june the mormon tabernacle choir is coming so we get to go its on june 30th then after we get to meet with elder christopherson. so im going out with 3 70s. haha
other than that just trucking along. i hope germany was good (without me). SOUTH AFRICA….SOUTH AFRICA….SOUTH AFRICA….
soon enough
les extrano mucho…
ekjy

Kiel’s Update 4/23/2007

well news is in… elder perez is leaving and im staying so more than likely ill will die here. elder mcfall is going to be my companion. he came out with me so now ive served with ever single missionary i came out with except one. the one i havnt served with is the one i will fly home with. but it should be fine.
other than that no news. this week we have transfers then we are meeting with elder callister from the 70 (president lords mission president) so ill have to let you know how that goes. other than that nothing else going on…….
hope germany is fine. wish i were there…..
miss ya
ekjy

Kiel’s Letter 3/19/2007

Ok well the internet is freaking out and logs us off every 4 minutes, so lucky you im going to type this on word so you will get capital letters and all. Haha
Anyways my hip well heres the story. So I go in to get my mri last Friday and the radiologist decides it was way to much radiation at my age to have a bone contrast done (when they stick dye in your bone) so just did the mri. I assumed he talked to my doctor about it and that’s fine with me one less test to be done and the way they explained it I wasn’t to excited to habe the radiation dumped on me. So I get a phone call on Monday telling me that I needed to call the doctor but it was to late to do it. So that night I have a dream that I had cancer in my hip and that’s what was going wrong. So I woke up and called them Tuesday from transfer meeting. (I didn’t get transferred just went for a meeting) they said they were sorry but the hospital didn’t have permission to change the test so I needed to go back and get it redone. So this past Friday I went again, for the real thing, and let me tell you not fun to have dye injected into your hip. I hated it. It wasn’t super pain full but I don’t like hospital gowns to start, and when you’re a missionary it makes it worse. Then they put this needle into your hip and you and the doctor watch it on an xray tv thing above my head. He has to poke around to find the right spot to push, and then after 5 minutes he says sometimes its tighter on some people. (I cant feel it just a weird pressure in my hip). Then I hear this scrape as he moves it and actually scratches my hip with a needle not something anyone has ever felt before. It didn’t hurt but was worse then fingernails on a chalk board INSIDE MY LEG. Then he injected me with a ton of liquid stuff. And made a little bubble on my hip. Then I went and had another mri for an hour in this little tube. I HATED THAT DAY. But now im going in to talk to the doctor to see what has to be done. I really dunno whats going to happen. If it will be anything at all I dunno. In the mean time im still going to physical therapy twice a week so that’s good. I like that.
Anyways other than that covering two areas is nuts. Soooo much to do. So little time. We had 7 people in church and we have so many people we don’t have time for them all. Then you throw in recent converts and members your talking about no time to breathe. We also have 2 apartments because our area is so large so we took the other elders apartment as well and stay there every few days. Overall im loving it though. It’s a good way to go out. Just a lot of work.
We had our second to last concert this Sunday it was good. They recorded it and we will get a copy on dvd so you will get to see it too. I talked to president for a while about everything after we talked about how weird it is to have me going home. I love him so much. He is the best guy. Im excited to hang out with him after. We are going skiing and he said he would hook me up with some sweet internships.
Other than that not to much going on. Im glad you got my pictures I have more now the other one is full ill send it out prolly next Monday or sooner if I can I just don’t have time. Anyways I need to know about housing and all that jazz as soon as you can and I really don’t know what to do about having you come get me. One side says yes. The other just says no. I dunno. If you really want to I guess its ok but I cant decide.
I miss you guys a ton I hope to hear from you soon….
Ekjy

Kiel’s Letter 3/5/2007

oh man your lucky. i really was going to give you the silent treatment.
but i wont, this wont be a good email though, not to much to tell you and we dont have anytime. anyways this week was ok. was supposed to be my last at physical therapy but my doctor called to change my other appointment so i have one more day at physical therapy tommorow. we decided we were going to bring them in lunch it will be fun.
we also had our first concert last night in nashville. i loved it, it was way good way better then i thought it would be for not having really anytime to practice. its about an hour and 30 minutes long of just songs about christ and all that with some solos and stuff, then the stake presidents speak. im going to try to get us to preform it once and record it so we can all get it on dvds. it would be awesome. but we will see. it was pretty powerful and then we had to come home. it was good though nashville is like my home because i was there and i know everyone. plus the burbanks from murray were there and they said the concert up in there area they are going to get the whole ward to come. so i hope so!
other than that things are good. we will find out about transfers this saturday so i will let you know. and as for my classes and everything i know we had then listed in my byu packet that was in my room. the one that me and jamie put together. but things i would like would be religion classes to start, spanish, i dont know. i can go on and check but im not sure on what my options are right now. nothing super hard. and housing definitly phipps, but other than that im open. i can try to get other but i dunno even know where or what we have to do, or what the stupid byu housing laws are. so just get back to me.
anyways i miss you all and am looking forward to letters haha….
ekjy

Note from the Editor – or Kiel’s Dad

Okay – so the site has been a bit slow in being updated. And you will see as I get all of the missing letters from Kiel up that he has been trying to chastise me for it. Well, I’m sorry. The site was hacked into and someone out there was using my site to send out millions of spam emails under my name. So, I had to shut down for a while to try to fix it. Then, with my new job and move it became hard to get everyong back up.
Anyway – we are back. So if you are checking us out again, come back each week for more updates and they will be here. Also, over the next few days, there will be all the missing letters from the last few months starting to appear. You can find them easily by choosing the month you want to see on the menu to the right.
Thanks for being patient, and don’t blame Kiel. My bad.

Kiel’s Update 2/26/07

ohhh there you go with the guilt trips. sheesh. i was dead set on being firm and getting my point across that I HAVNT GOTTEN ANY LETTERS IN MONTHS. i was going to write up a long email and send it to myself and tell you that youll get it when i start to get letters. but the guilt trips. i guess youll get it but i mean it i want letters. (ps dad please change my website at least the adress the past 2 letters that i ahve gotten (in 6 months) have had to be forwarded to me since the adress online is from 2 apartments ago.)
anyways crazy week. we had a good baptism though i guess ill start with that. her name is rufina shes 38 from mexico shes way cool. she is the one we have battled with her and her ex boyfriend/fiance. but he moved out we know where he is living (actually the same apartments but different one) and kept working with her. we came over to finish the lessons with her and found lo and behold an older gentlemen who apeared awefully like a pastor and instead of saying hello looked at our name tags and said “wow arnt you a little young to be an elder” HOW ORGINAL. from that moment it was on. elder perez and i (both being older missionarys and quite frustrated with the attempts of the adversary to keep rufina from being baptised werent about to let this guy stop it the night before) so we let lose. normally i would have excused him as fast as i could which i still wanted but we toyed with him and his petty arguements for a while. we talked about elders and how we are to young and how timothy talks about bishops needing to be married and acording to him elder and bishop are the same (tough one on this since the spanish bible is translated differently. reference acts 20. in english mentions calling the elders then them being called overseers. in spanish it says elders then bishops) but we got it. then we talked about authority and pretty soon it was a battle for an hour and he was just trying to insult the book of mormon but i told him untill he has read it he cant talk about it so he asked for us to give him 30 days when we could recovine to discuss it. we told him if he read and prayed we would love to. so he left. he actually had gotten to rufinas house at 5 and left at 830. he tried hard to get her. she just said he was bugging her and didnt even ask a question and got baptized. it was good.
i guess the lesson learned is something i was thinking about. he is a 50 year old pastor who just trys to fight with 2 20 year old mormon missionarys. he has studied the bible for years and me, yes kiel yager, can hold his own with him. its amazing what studying can do. i love it. we have now found out a bit more about the pastor, he is from the church of christ (which means he is in trouble), as well as he recieves lots of money and was hired to come here (which means he is in trouble). so until next time israel santos (the preacher)….
we also had interviews with president which was awesome i love him. but he said i should get one more with elder perez since we are doing well and then i will die here in smyrna last area. maybe who knows things can change. we also talked about how going home is and all that. he wants you guys to come out but i still dunno. i dunno what you guys want to do or what. if you do you need to buy my ticket as well and then the church pays you back. so i dunno when you would be wanting to go home or ANYTHING. he talked about school as well and how i need to do that and figure it all out so i REALLY need housing time is not available anymore.
my hip is surviving. i have my last week this week at physical therapy which is sad. i love it. well not really but the doctors are really nice and its fun to go. i took pictures with all them so i wont forget. they love us too. we have fun. last time we were in there one of the interns got asked by another patient who we are and she said oh theyre the mormon missionarys. the leave there houses for 2 years pay for it and dont get to talk to their familys. they are really nice. haha i was happy she made a contact for us. so next week i will have to get my mri and see if i need surgery or what the deal is. i just hope its not surgury. we will see though i bet president lords will let me call you and tell you the results if its needed or he will or something.
thats about it going on. the area is good. moving along. we have some others on the edge of baptism and moving along. this last week we got invited to some investigators house to eat she made us langua (tongue) my favortie and i ate way too much. 15 tacos. definitly a record. then i had to go to choir practice with elder faerber again (speaking of which we decided you need to go out to eat with his parents and get to know each other his number is 805-480-9885). but choir is good. we are having 6 performances so we will see how they go. one in ever stake. ill have someone call you or something and tell you about it or ill record it if i can. i worked so hard to get my pictures copied so i can send it home but since i obviously worked harder to get you these pictures then you are about writing me im not in a hurry. youll get them this week though. then send it back ASAP.
ok i think thats about it
ojala que me escriben porque ahorita parece que no me quieren.
ekjy

Kiel’s Update 10/23/06

Kiel’s Birthday a few months ago

i wont lie these letters keep getting harder and harder for me to write. im not sure if its my lazyness or lack of new things. its crazy im coming up on 16 months in the mission. things are pretty rutine now. crazy
lets see though….i guess the biggest thing this week was zone conference. it was good. it was all the way in clarksville so its a long haul to get there. but it was good. president lords just got back from the yearly mission president seminar this year elder holland came. most of you should know im in love with elder holland. he is the best. so i was jealous but he focused on quotes and things from him so it was cool. i guess he president was sitting on the front row and elder holland said will some one please get the lords a towel i keep spitting on them. president says he was getting intense and said if we were there, we’d never have to have a zone conference or interview or district meeting again.
they were up in palmyra so they got to do alot of cool things. they went to the sacred grove with elder holland and elder tingey. elder tingey knows the lords pretty well and that they are from vermont so he said sister lords although youve been here many times this time will be different. they said it was great.
but i guess it was an alright conference. they changed some mission stuff which should make things alot better. we really are focusing on using members and helping them thats what i like to do. its more effective to use them to help you teach and teach their friends and relatives then to knock doors all day. so it should really help.
i guess thats pretty much the highlight. last night though for family home evening we got to carve pumpkins. they are awesome. elder hill and I have the best for sure. they are sweet. i havnt carved a pumpkin in years. thats pretty much the extent of us enjoying halloween this year. we got to have fun last year this year we are grounded and have to clean our apt. sweet. but what can you do.
i guess on other news for those you would like to know i have offically gained a southern draw. its alllll over. i still get asked if im from boston which makes me happy but when i say words such as dRY or tRY bYE any of those rys its nasty. i cant stop, they also use a phrase instead of What did you say? or huh? they say dooo whattt? that ones fun. haha.
i guess thats all for this week. i miss you all!!
ekjy

Kiel’s Update 10/16/06

Kiel and ??? (yeah, this looks like a missionary)

Ok quick update….

This week has been great. We were waiting for our books forever I finally got some of mine on friday so that made the week good!

we also had a baptism on sunday. it was awesome. his wife was a member and they are family friends with the stake president so when they had a baby they had him bless him. thats what pushed him to realize what he was missing so decided to take the lessons. it was a great night because his wife was so happy.

besides that not to much going on. we need to find someone else to baptize now to keep it going. 2 years with nothing and me and elder hill are 2 in 2 months! im 99.9% leaving at the end of this transfer so im sad. i love it in murray. english is actually quite fun. ive learned alot so i guess its ok if i have to go back. i do miss mexican food and i want to get my spanish back to a native status so im cool either way.

i looked at all the funeral photos it looked great. im excited to get the cd im sure ill be laughing in it too. i ordered all my books a few weeks ago and have been dieing to get them. i finally got most of them on friday i should get the rest of them this week, when i get home ill have a pretty amazing gospel library. all i will be lacking are the expensive ones ill have to get when im old and rich.

im jealous of grandpas new car. i want a ride haha. im lucky just to have a car. its so cold out here right now. it was no joke 90 last week this past few days like 50 im just hoping in my next area i can have full time car and not ride my bike. my bike is dieing and i hate it. riding in a suit, and freezing in the snow doesnt make tracting any funner. but i guess mission memories

i think thats it. oh yesterday we were talking about free agency in elders quorom and the teacher said “then the satan mcdonalds chose to take away our free agency” (speaking about no more super sizes) i thought my dad would like that. or i guess my old fat dad. haha. sheesh. i think your both skinner then me. kinda scary.

anyways miss you all sorry i suck so bad at writing.

ekjy

Kiel’s Update 10/9/06

well what to write….
its been an intense week to say the least…
im probably going to just vent i dont think this one will be a good one to send out to anyone. but what can you do.
i know you guys are at the funeral so i hope that is going well. im jealous your there and im happy i dont have to be. so i guess its ok.
we got home thursday for a quick stop and had a message that said “hey elders its president lords…not an emergency but i have some information for elder yager if he could call me back thanks” so i was like oh man what did i do. im gonna get sent home but then i was like nah if i did something he wouldnt have said it wasnt an emergency. so i calmed down. then i thought it was my mom. she said she sent me a birthdy present and hoped i liked it but i never got it i knew she was lieing so i said i never got it. i havent heard from them since mothers day. so i thought maybe she called p lords. so i called at 5 he didnt answer. i called again he didnt. i called at 6 he didnt. twice at 7. then i called sister lords. she didnt answer. then i got nervous i didnt know what was going on. finally we got home and i called him and he told me grandma had passed away. he said i could call if i was having a hard time but he didnt think id have to. i agreed. that was it. i just vented and shared thoughts with my comp about grandma and my reactions. he just listened. i told him about thanksgiving, and her sleeping in my bunk bed. the first time i met her and me taking down christmas tree lights. just thought it was weird she wouldnt be at my homecoming, or my wedding. but it was tought that night and the next morning but i know theres nothing i can do.
it did help being a missionary too. i know where she is and what not so im not sad i just know im going to miss her. it still hasnt really sunk in yet. i knew i couldnt call though it wouldnt have helped in.
part of me is just said i cant be there with everyone. i wish i could give hug to grandpa and be with jamie but im sure everyone is doing fine. just make sure everyone knows i miss them. and wish i could be there.
i guess side note we were called sunday morning to fill in and speak in sacrament so i borrowed my dads talk and used some of it (the one on conversion) supposedly it was good. i used one of my dads statements in there i saw some people writing it down. anyways i think thats it.
im still waiting for your letters dad. id yell at you guys but im sure its been a crazy week. so ill just wait patiently.
miss and love you guys so much…
if one of you dies ill kill you. just so you know.
ekjy

Kiel’s Update 10/2/06

ok well i dont wanna type much so we will see what i come up with…
things here are good. first week of 7 in murray. i love it here the members are awesome and its just a great area with the college kids and watching it grow. we have just had that one baptism we have one more for october but elder hill and I want at lease 2 more. so we need to pick it up.
we have had some cool expierneces though. we have really started to work with the members trying to get them to help us. we are starting to see it with referals and soon exchanges. but we had a cool expierence the other day. we had about an hour left so we were tracting. we knocked the first door and a college student answered it we started talking she was really nice and smart. then her roomate came home so we kept going with both of them. we did the whole lesson and shared the first vision the spirit was way strong. we found out the roomate is a senior working on her teaching degree. she is student teaching at the highschool in town so we asked if she knew any of the youth we know. turns out she is one of thems history teacher! she is 22 so its pretty funny we tracted in to her. she liked the messsage alot we will follow up with them this week and see if anything is there. it made the student happy we told her the next day and was like i cant wait to talk to her in class then.
besides that not to much going on. general conference obviously is the best weekend for missionarys. it was great. i loved it. my favorite was holland. but he always will be. he is my number one. i really was surprised by l tom perry as well. he got angry at the end ive never seen him do that. ballard, nelson holland hinckley and perry all rebuked us. i loved it.
but besides that nothing much. i hear the moving saga continues haha. im glad im not in this one. i hated how much we had to vacuum. “no footprints”. sheesh. but im interested to see what happens and what the new house looks like.
im going to order my books today and im still waiting for all your good letters. so send those and im sorry to everyone for how bad i suck at writing. i miss everyone a ton though and i hope everyone is doing well. especially grandparents.
miss you guys
ekjy