-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!