The Atonement Project

Dad, (no pics this week, but better than the mini email to one of us last week.)
My week has been pretty good, the weather has been hot and we bike everyday.  So I'm losing weight. I hope I sweat like no other, but it gets us lots of water haha!  I'm doing pretty good at not snacking much and eating normal size plates of food. The teaching is going slow out here, but its all working out some how or another.

 I love the mountains! I look at them everyday they are very beautiful, but lately the mountains have been hard to see because there are fires going on in California. So the smoke makes here very foggy.  I have a picture of the mountains and if you just look at it looks like a picture from home, you can't see the mountain unless you really look for them.

We don't have a car so we can't really drive anywhere, but I wish I could hike the mountain again. I miss the nature here, it's just a jungle of concrete. Elder Koo thinks it's heaven here because back in China where he lived the air was bad.  But for me the air smells and makes me feel funny at times. He might have to be shipped back home to Korea because the war between North and South Korea is getting bad.

 What did Colton do to break his back; was it from the car wreck he was in?   Does mom still play that video of me to Blair?  We were talking about that the other day at dinner.  Well I love you guys, be good, don't get into any trouble haha!

Mom,
 We are teaching 2 investigators one is Steve Z. his whole family are members.  He comes every week and plays the organ every other week, but he is still learning.  The other is named Shiley R., she is 11 and her grandpa won't let her be baptized because if some bitter feelings with the church.  Now grandma wants her to be baptized and so does her mom, but she lives with her grandparents. I guess grandpa can get mean, so those are our two that we are working with.

We are also teaching a less active guy, named Brent he is Samoan and is awesome!  He wants to come back and he is trying to get a temple recommend so we can do baptisms. In about a year he and his girlfriend are going to get married in the temple!

Oh, did you hear?  Jordan River Temple is going to close for a year and a half for updates. It's going to halt the temple work; this temple is the biggest for doing endowments it has 4 rooms for it. Each holds 150 people so it is the work horse temple.

 We help out this 90 something year-old guy do yard work. It is a great time when we are there! Well one thing I have learned is that the atonement is real. Our mission is doing what we call the Atonement Project.  So we read the Book of Mormon and highlight the verses that talk about or have something to do with the atonement. We were told to invite our families to do the same.

 We met a guy who lost his faith and we felt bad for him. Reading the Book of Mormon helps build it (faith).

I'm finding it is hard to control my ADHD as a missionary.  Our personality and senses are heightened, so the ADHD is worse than it was before. But, I am handling it ok. I find myself wondering in thought so much more, someone will be talking to us and the surrounding will catch my attention and then I remember the guy was talking to us. I am lost to where the conversation went.
 I love you and I will talk more later

Feel like Running through a Maze?

 Well, maybe not literal mazes, but Dakota got to meet the author of Maze Runner, James Dashner.

and he got authentic Chinese food, from a woman who lived in China.

Thank you for reminding me, Hronek sent me an email as well; he is living in Drapper.  He is working in a garage fixing cars, he said to give him our number to call us to take us to lunch sometime. So I need to send him that I hope those guys email me so I can get in touch with them.  You never know why things happen, like you getting called into work when you were supposed to be going to the temple; maybe you were saved from a car accident that would have killed you and mom. So, I'm glad for that false alarm.

 I am loving my new companion, he is great, funny in his ways too; he does some odd things every now and again. He says some pretty funny stuff too. He is a great kid, came out right after high school, graduated same time as Kayla. So he is only 19 as well. Maybe she would date a Korean guy? hahahaha! He is going to BYU after his mission so he will be in the states for a while. He wants to be an accountant.

  I read from preach my gospel every day and learn how to be a better missionary.  I will keep up the work. Mom didn't write me back last week I always get a response from you both after I send you an email so it was weird not getting an email back. 

Elder Koo is from Korea, but was raised in China all his life. He is awesome, he is keeping me on track with things helping me study better and to not be lazy in my studies.

 My district is a little bigger this time we have 4 sets of missionaries in it so 3 sets of elders including my and Koo and a set of sisters. The names of the missionaries are Elder Araujo and Elder Rogers, Elder Goins and Elder Fuller, Sister Hanson and Sister William, then Elder Koo and I. My zone is huge I think 20 or so missionaries; which now that I think about it, it's most likely average.

My suggestion to you for teaching social studies like Mr. McBee is, to do as many activities as you can like he did.  For one he showed us the movie Last of the Mohicans, but would block out the parts of violence like when the Indian scalped a guy.  But then he would do other things like the powder horns the settlers used, they would carve in them then put oil over them to show the carvings. So he printed out powder horns for us to draw on. When you talk about the slaves he had shekels to put on the kids who wanted to do it (and had parents permission) and they had to keep a journal and this would last a week. I think he would warn the teachers because it will get distracting, but it showed the kids how the slaves felt. Decorate your room with a lot of stuff from the eras you are teaching that will help out the learning. I just remember his room and Mr. Miller's room being decorated with all this cool stuff.  Do the walnut dye for the kids too, bring in the white t-shirt and they can dye a t-shirt and stuff like that. Don't just teach them about it, show them about it, that my thoughts for you.  

 

(wish I knew why the bike helmet was cracked, but he didn't mention the why...)

 

New Companion

Yep, that's my new comp, he is from Korea; his name is Elder Koo.

 His English is very good and yeah, things are going very well now!  I'm excited for this transfer, to maybe learn some Korean and talk to Uncle Kory in Korean, Hahaha! He would have a fit.
Sister Burrows, she is awesome to talk to when I get the chance to talk to her which isn't often, but we email on p-days.  So it's pretty cool learning about England and Scotland from a loca'ls point of view.
The days are meshing together now haha, it's nuts to think at the end of this transfer; I'll be out 6 months in the field. Then I only have 3 quarters more to go. I'm excited for all that will be waiting for me.

(next part is personal between the Kyle and Kota)

How is Blair doing? Is she still the better dog that doesn't get into trouble unless Dixie starts it? Does she retrieve yet, or is she still too wild for that yet? I miss my dummy haha!                       

There was this guy that stopped us while we are walking (by the way we lost the car they gave it to other missionaries). I was pretty happy, but he said you want to take a picture on my jet ski to send to your parents? So we got on, took pictures; it was great!

The next picture is of my last district.  The Hawaiian girl I came out with this time, she is awesome!

Then in the larger group is of my old zone.  A few of them went home, they were great guys to hang out with.

 The M3 album cover is of this guys band where Elder Munyer, the other guy and I made a few songs together. He has a studio in his house, so we recorded them on p-day it was great!

  They sound pretty descent.

I thought dad would get a kick out of the old skid steer we saw haha!

 Then there is a night view of the Jordan River Temple. It's the temple we live by and it's the busiest temple in the world it's so cool...

Our appointments didn't go over well this week, nobody was home when we would go by so it was a dump week. But, we are starting to get a roll on things.  We invited a guy to be baptized last night and he said he would pray about it.  So pray for S-- Z-- is his name. The rest of them are baptized. S.Z. comes every week and plays organ every other Sunday. So he is what we call a dry Mormon haha! I don't know really need anything from back to school stuff yet, or not I'm fine right now. I'll probably need something when it's not on sale anymore most likely haha!
Kayla has sent me a few videos from her iPod but other than that if you link it to a website I can't see it cause of the restrictions on my iPad.

 If I told you all I learned so far I would be typing a long time haha! I will send you my study journal when I fill it out and you can read what I've learned from that. It's been interesting though, one thing I've learned is faith in Christ will give you pretty much what ever you want as long as it's expedient in Him. You can help people to become baptized with just your faith alone.  Ether 12:14 shows this, Christ has said if you have faith in me, I will give you all things; or in other words what you need to let the Lord take over and he will use you to guide.  We can't force people we have to invite them to do something and we show love and trust they find out for themselves.

 I think you and dad should read preach my gospel and read it through. It's funny how it applies to everyone not just non members or less actives. So food for thought.