TESTIFICATION!!!!!

i never know how to open emails home. I always just end up saying something lame like okay. so today i will say something not so lame like.... TESTIFICATION!!! haha i dont remember if i told you all that story, but someone used that word in a prayer in a tuesday night devotional in the MTC. it was funny because, well just look at it!! It is my hope and prayer today that my email can help you all recieve a testification of this work!
 wow already i have the little red squiggly line all over the place in this email. i never were all that good at english ya know! hahaha now, down to business. what has been going on here in New York!?! Well good news!!! we got to teach Brother Swetish (more like Sweet...ish i think) this week. The whole scary thing with his wife's dad turned out to be ok, and so is he! he is still going strong and is still planning on the 19th of Feb. We have picked up a few more potential investigators that seem really solid, and so we are excited about that as well.
We had a... different experience this week too with one of our lessons. we got into some super super deep doctrine stuff. everytime we tried to bring it around back to the lesson they would ask another deep doctrine question. finally i just stopped them and was like, yo, this is much more than we teach. we teach line upon line. It is milk before meat. so take a sip and sit back down. (didnt really say it like that ) But really that is how it is. and all problems with the doctrine of the church come back to the Book of Mormon. It resolves all concerns. every last one of them. do you know why? because if it is true, then the Prophet Joseph Smith was a Prophet, and every other concept of this Church is true. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and is the word of God, Therefore i know this church is true.
I got to go to Stake Priesthood in Albany yesterday. that was way awesome. it was a really really good meeting. i dont think i have ever been in a room more attentive, yet absolutely dead silent before. it was sick awesome sweet, thick with the spirit! I actually get to go back to Albany tomorrow for zone conference. And guess what mommy! your assumption from all those many years ago was right. I have been asked to play the piano for it. so just like you said, i should practice because i am going to need it on my mission someday. it really has happened now! i am actually accompanying a special musical group as well so that should be fun!
"The Standard of Truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop this work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, independent til it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, til the purpose of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done." It is so true! this is the work of God and no matter what happens in this life or world it will continue the way that He wants it to. He is our Father. He loves each and every one of us. I have never felt closer wrapped in His arms then i do now. I pray that each of you can grow closer to Him. if any of you are struggling, take courage in a little spiritual CPR. Church attendance, Prayer, and Reading the scriptures. He truly will bless you! i Love you all and as always thank you for your continued love and support!
Love
Elder Shane Kitchen

oh ya by the way, check out Mormon.org. it is way cool. they are having a completely new style of missionary work that is centered around it. there should be an insert in your January Ensign with some info on it as well. check it out, and if you want make a profile! that way i can refer people to it!

Yay Elder Shane! We're so proud of you. Remember to keep Elder Shane in your prayers. The church is true!

-27 Degrees

Wow it has been so super cold! today it got to about 27 below zero. It gets kinda hard to breathe when it is that cold. we went to the building to do our laundry and, well i dont know how to explain it other than the fact that it was really super cold!  Sorry about the no email thing last week! hopefully you will get my letter soon if you have not already recieved it. So lets see here what is new in Saratoga Springs? i am beginning to learn the area much better now so i am taking on alot more of my senior companion duties now. i am making sure that we are workin hard here! In the letter i mentioned our new investigator Jonathon Swetish i think. We have not been able to teach him since that first time sadly though because he is in the Navy and of a family crisis that came up. Hopefully we will be able to teach him this week though. I dont remember if i said this already, but he is basically already a member. He just hasnt been baptized. He is awesome! We are doing a lot of finding since we dont have many investigators. this week we went around doing shovel tracting. essentially what it was is we shovel someones walk and then knock on their door. (It snows a lot in New York if you had forgotten) infact there is about 24-30 inches of snow on the ground right now. It makes it really difficult when you are on a bike. going down big hills is like having ice shot into your face! it gets even funner when it is snowing on top of it! We are participating in some service activities around town so that is good too. I have gotten a lot of questions about what my area includes. It is basically a lot like Stephens actually. It has the City of Saratoga, then a lot of little villages like Ballston Spa, Malta, Corinth, and so forth. it takes about an hour (in a car) to go from one end to the other! Well another week gone by! Love you all and thank you for all of the support in this difficult time.
Love Always
Elder Shane Kitchen

Keep Elder Shane in your prayers. Remember the church is true!

Saratoga Springs

Straight from his mouth:
This week has been a super long one. I know how my companion feels though being a fresh missionary and having to try and teach a new companion the area. It is not an easy task. He is a champ though and is doing well with it. Elder Stratton is gonna be a great missionary. On tuesday we were able to go to a soup kitchen here and give some service. It was good to be able to do that. apparantly elders have been going there forever to do it. The ward members here really help out alot, since we dont have a car, we have to rely on the members for rides a lot. Saturday morning we woke up to about 11 inches of snow. and it is supposed to start snowing here again this week too. Saturday was the baptism for sister Larney-Marcus. she was the lady Elder Stratton had been teaching before. It was a really nice service. my area is including the town of Balston spa, wilton, Malta, Milton, and a bunch of other surrounding places. It really is gorgeous here, just frigid cold. No new Investigators to mention, but hopefully there will be soon. Love you all tons and tons. Thank you for the love and support
Elder Shane Kitchen

Remember to keep Elder Shane in your prayers. The church is true!

The "New" Week

Elder Shane says Hello from NEW York with the start of a NEW year with a NEW companion in a NEW area.

Elder Shane was told on Saturday he needed to pack because that afternoon he was transfered to Saratoga Springs, NY on an emergency transfer.  His new companion is Elder Stratton from Hurricane, UT, and his district leader is Elder Smith (who he went to High School with).

His new area is about 30 minutes north of New York's capitol city, Albany. He says it's comparable to Park City, but instead of having skiing as the main attraction, it's horse racing.

There is a baptism scheduled this Saturday, and even though the Elder that did the teaching was transfered out of the area, he still gets to come back for the ceremony.

Remember to keep Shane in your prayers. The church is true!

Fishermen vs. Hunters

Elder Shane was able to spend Christmas at some members' homes, and even though was away from his own, it helped him see more fully the true meaning and spirit of Christmas.

The first two weeks in Africa were very difficult for Elder Shane, but these first two in New York were even more trying. But Shane's learned to trust in the Lord and engulf his mind in His work. Shane will be transferring to a different area this week, so we'll find out next week where he'll be.

Shane's mission president gave him a little analogy: he said that in Africa i was a fisherman. throwing out the nests and bringing in tons of fish. Here in New York  i will be more of a hunter. The deer dont come around nearly as much, (unless of course you are lynn) but when they do come they are super rewarding. So i better get out there and start some pushes! actually a hunt is a really good way to explain what is going on i think. most always are they frustrating, and tiring. but they are for sure always rewarding.

Continue to keep Elder Shane in your prayers. Thanks for all the support that you give him. The church is true!

New York

Elder Shane arrived in Utica on Monday Dec. 13th. He's in the mission home with 3 other AP's, Elder Cutler, Elder Swain, and Elder West, who are all from Utah or Salt Lake Valley.

It's SUPER cold there and it snows tons and tons; Completely opposite of what it was in Africa.

Remember to keep Shane in your prayers. The church is true!

Changes

So, quite a bit has happened since the last post. Elder Shane was sent home on medical leave. After getting taken care of, the doctors gave him the all clear to go back and serve the Lord. He was reassigned to the Utica New York mission. Congrats Elder Kitchen! He flies out to New York on Monday the 13th to finish his mission.

Interesting Week

Elder Shane had a really interesting last week, for a couple of reasons too. One, his new companion, Elder Andon, was supposed to arrive on Tuesday, but he didn't come til Thursday. So Shane spent two days companionless. He spent the time with the district leader Elder Zufelt and his companion. Which that leads into another reason for the interesting week. I'll let him tell you why... We went to this one house that totally reminded me of pirates of the carribean. you know the one crazy lady that lives in the swamp house thing and no one can understand? ya this house was like that. well not so much because the person was crazy but because their house is completely surrounded by water! it was way cool.

His new companion is great. He's really patient with Shane because of his inability to speak very well in French, but they seem to get along just fine. It was a struggle to introduce him to everyone and to show him the area. But that made Shane more appreciative of the all the different leadership positions in the mission field.


Another interesting thing that happened this week, was that they got a call from the referral missionary in Provo! He was working with an investigator from Nigeria that was in Togo. So Shane and his companion were able to set up an appointment with him.


Shane was able to listen to a session of General Conference thanks to a couple who recorded it. It was only the audio, but he was very appreciative of what he had. Besides, they don't have a tv so the video part would have been pointless anyway. :)


And finally, Elder Andon forgot that he had something cooking on their handy dandy camp stove in the kitchen, and it caught fire. No harm came from it, just a really smokey apartment for a couple of hours.

Remember to keep Shane in your prayers. The gospel is true!

Transfer Calls

Transfer calls came in last week, but Elder Shane is staying in his same area. His companion, Elder Kouhe however got transfered to Benin. His new companion is Elder Andon from Cote d'Ivoire. Thanks Elder Kouhe for helping Shane, and being a good companion and trainer.

The language is still coming. He understand most of what is being said, but speaking is a different story and he still has a lot to learn.

Eva's baptism got moved up to the 13th of November. So keep praying for her.

Halloween is not a holiday that is celebrated there, but Elder Shane still celebrated with Elder Zufelt (his district leader). They ate all the candy that was in the apartment, had some cheap cookies and some youpi choco candies (which he says are really good).

Elder Shane and his companion are teaching a family, and while at their second appointment, a lady came and started yelling at them. The spirit was lost, and the lesson was a flop. Apparently, the lady was the investigator's sister, and she was trying to kill him through voodoo so she and her other sisters could have his inheritance. CRAZY! But, the Elders were able to give him a blessing, so hopefully everything will be ok.

Continue to pray for Shane, his companion, and the people. This gospel is true!

Chickens and Goats

There are chickens and goats everywhere in Togo!

Shane has had some new experiences this last week. Apparently Togo has some pretty awesome drummers. The only problem, is that the drums are part of voodoo rituals. SCARY!

Shane was walking down the only paved road (actually cobblestone) and a guy in a car was staring him down and wasn't paying attention to the road, and ran into a power pole. Oops.

He has experienced a lockdown on his missions. Togo has this thing called "Dead Togo". The people go on strike, and those that were riding motorcycles, or driving their cars, or if they were white, the people on strike would take the liberty of sending them to the hospital. Not a pleasant experience. So, he was able to stay inside his apartment all day and do lots of studying.

The weather is changing there. It's the start of the hot, dry season. Completely opposite of what he's used to, but he's loving it.

He's been able to exercise the power of the Priesthood by giving a couple of blessings. He didn't quite understand what they were for because the language is still a struggle, but the spirit was very strong, and he knew the people receiving them could feel it too. Him and his companion have more baptisms scheduled for the 30th, that makes 6 total! He was also able to teach an investigator in English! Eva is from Ghana, and only speaks english, and has a member brother in the states. She feels like she needs to be spreading God's word, so pray for her and for Shane and his companion.

Continue praying for Shane, and the people. The church is true!

Interesting Happenings in Togo

Shane was able to assist in some baptisms there already, and the people there don't know what to think about the immersion part. Most of the people there have never been fully immersed in water so it's a new scary thing for them. And, it's probably the only time they will be fully under water. And there are 5 more scheduled baptisms on Oct 30th!

There is no drainage system in the roads where he is, so when they get rain like they have been, it just floods in the streets. The Elders have to carry about flip flops with them so they can hurry and change so they don't get their shoes wet. Sometimes they will have to make detours as much as 3 blocks away to get to their destinations because of the lakes in the streets.

In Togo, the women carry everything on their heads. He even saw one lady carrying a sofa on her head! INSANE huh! The taxis there are motorcycles, and one day, he saw a lady get on one of those taxis motorcycles with a big bowl of something on her head, and a baby strapped to her back!

This isn't a picture from Shane, but it gives you an idea of what he sees all the time.

Elder Shane actually saw a UTA bus on the one paved road in the whole country. Crazy huh! He's picking up the language a little bit better. It's still a struggle for him, but it's coming none the less. Keep praying for him and the people. The gospel is true.

MTC conference song

Here's that other song that the Elders of district 46-G sang together before they left the MTC. They performed this song at their MTC mission conference. I think the Elders sound great! Sorry it's taken so long to get it posted. It was such a large video that it wouldn't upload. So I had to split it up into 3 parts.

part 1 of "I Love the Lord"

part 2

part 3

Where's Elder Kitchen?

Shane is serving in Lome, Togo in the Souza-Netime area. His companion is Elder Kouhe from Abobo Cote D'Ivoire, and they get along great. His companion speaks very little english, and Shane speaks very little french, so they are going to struggle for a while, but I'm sure the African French will come to him soon.

Togo may be one of the poorest countries in the world. The people live in scap metal homes no bigger than a dinning room. Shane's showers consist of filling a buck up with water and then getting a smaller bucket to wash with. He has to do his laundry by hand, which means that his clothes are not going to be the cleanest for the next two years. He does however have electricity in his apartment so he gets to sleep with a fan. He's already eaten some different foods, like eloke with fish heads (brains and eyes too), echeke, and fufu.


He already has 4 baptisms scheduled for saturday (oct 9th). Even though he didn't do any of the teaching, he's excited to be able to be a part of it. He might even get to perform one of the baptisms. They want him to do it cause he's white, and they've never seen a white boy before. They call him yovo, which means white boy. It's also a mission rule that you can't have your hair longer than 2 mm, so he basically has a shaved head.


Shane's excited to finally be serving the people, but he needs your prayers now more than ever. Continue to pray for him, and for the people. Not only will you and Shane be affected by your prayers, but it will bless the African people as well.

Shane's MTC songs

Here are a couple videos of Shane and some other Elders in his district singing some songs that they learned while in the MTC. Thanks to Elder Howden for sending them to us. There will hopefully be another one coming soon. It took too long to upload, but hopefully we'll get it soon.

Singing "Bonjour"

"Amazing Grace"

We recieved notice that Elder Shane and his companion, Elder Lewis arrived in the Ivory Coast safely @ 9:30 pm, Tues Sept 28th, Ivory Coast time, which is 3:30 Utah time. They stayed the night with the AP. As of yet, he didnt know where his first assignment will be. We have learned that his preparation day will be on Mondays. Dad will be posting pics soon.

Phone Call

Shane was able to call home today for about 20 mins before he got on the plane. It was a neat experience to hear him. You could hear in his voice how much he's grown spiritually. Mom, Dad, Joe, Amy and her kids,  Paula and Sammie, and Andy were all able to be there and to say a few things to him. He's super excited to finally be able to teach the gospel to the African people. We had him bear his testimony to us, and we asked him to do it in french. He seemed a little hesitant at first because he said he's not that great at french yet, but when he started, the words just seemed to flow, and it was a beautiful testimony. Even though none of us could understand the words, we could understand the Spirit.

So, now he's off on this new exciting part of his mission, and we couldn't be more proud of him. Remember to keep him in your prayers. And remember to keep the African people in your prayers, that they might have their hearts softened, and their minds opened so that they might be receptive to the message that he'll be delivering to them.

GO ELDER KITCHEN!!

Last P-Day

Shane leaves for Africa in 3 days!!!!! He is SO excited. I think to say that, is an understatement. His life in Africa definitely will be a lot different than what he's used to. In his words... everything in Cote D'Ivoire is going to be opposite as it is in America and France. it is funny to compare with the Toulouse france missionaries in my district because like they will be eating cheese and bread and pastries and such where as i will be eating yucca root, fufu, and fish head! how crazy is that. We have no hot water, unless we want to warm it up ourselves, we have no fridge or AC, no postage, no ice cream, scattered usage of electricity, and you wanna know the crazy part?..... I AM SO EXCITED FOR IT! I am so excited to be able to finally get out there and serve the African nation!

He also accomplished one of his main goals while in the MTC. He read the entire Book of Mormon front to back! He finished in exactly 8 weeks. Way to go Shane! We're so proud of you!

Blog for Elder Shane Ryan Kitchen

I'm starting a blog for Elder Shane, so we can keep updated on what's going on on his mission. Any comments or inputs would be appreciated. Thanks.

Travel Plans

Elder Kitchen gets to call home on Monday Sept 27th! He'll be calling sometime between 3 and 4:30 pm from the airport in Salt Lake City. His flight leaves at 4:50 and it's a straight flight to Paris, France with a 2 1/2 hour layover where he drops off the French missionaries, and picks up another. From Paris, he flies for another 8 hours to Cote D'Ivoire, AFRICA!!!!! He'll arrive in Abidjan at 6 pm on the 28th!
Yeah for Elder Kitchen!!!!!!