San Nicolas

hey family.....
Im glad you guys had a great week.... the party for katrina kenji and kingston sounded awsome.... its all good ill be there for their next birthday....=)
and mom thats nice your gonna be able to have more time with not having work.... that should take a little stress away.... well this last week was pretty crazy we had transfers. they ended up shutting my last area due to not many missionaries coming. so they had to close all the small areas that werent having success, but they should be opening it back up again in a while... well i am now back here in monterrey... im kinda in the suburbs.... it would be like being in davis from sacramento..... the area is in San Nicolas..... im really enjoying this area, im with an american now.... Elder Combe from Draper, Utah he has 5 months in the mission he's awsome we make a good team... really hard worker... he plays football and rugby too so we have alot in common....=)
we have alot of sweet investigators one of them ,adam ,is really cool, hes way animated we told him about an activity last thursday... and we had a little bit of a misunderstanding.... we told him we were gonna pick him up at night around 730 to go but he thought it was in the morning so obviously we didnt show in the morning and he decided to go looking for the church.... haha we got there at night and he was like hey i was waiting for you guys.... we felt kinda bad but it truly showed how much he really wants to go to church... we have plans to have him get baptized in 2 weeks. . .  him and his sister..... im pretty stoked....
well i better get going dont have much time.... but i hope you guys have a great trip to utah and idaho and let ALL THE FAMBAM KNOW I LOVE THEM.....=)
oh and mom about that package.... is their any way you could send me a portable cd player, i dont know if there are any lying around the house.... and some speakers??? i forgot to tell you guys but we are not aloud to have video ipods anymore.... so im without music..... and some cds would be nice....=) david can you send me some of your raised in faith cds and a couple mixes.... i love you buddy.... oh and my giants hat too would be nice..... mom could you do that for me??? love you......
Elder Kingston

Felipe's Baptism

Hey Family,
Thanks so much for the emails. I love hearing about your weeks. The upcoming weeks sound like they're gonna be busy, especially this week with all these birthdays.. Happy Birthday Kenji , Katrina and Kingston.... let me know how your birthdays went.  Maybe you guys can send me a piece of cake..lol That's cool you guys are all going on vacation...whoo hoo....haha thats good you and dad are going to help grandma and grandpa with the reunion... im sure they really appreciate that..
This week was last week of changes and it went really well.  Friday we baptized Felipe (Peluche)  We were about to do the ordnance and then he said he would like to give a prayer beforehand. He gave one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard.  In his prayer he made some promises to God and gave alot of thanks. It was very spiritual.. With experiences like this,  it really just makes me wanna work harder so that every single person that passes me has the opportunity to hear of this wonderful gospel. As missionaries, sometimes we choose who we want to contact, we judge alot and we don't contact certain people because they're wealthy or they look like drug addicts... but I learned that we need to open our mouths about the gospel to everyone and let them decide whether or not they wanna listen, we should not be the ones to decide...

I am really excited to be staying another change here in Saltillo.  I am even more excited because I don't have to pack....haha!  but even after 13 months in the mission I still get nervous for transfers and getting a new companion... haha! I know I'm a sissy.
Well I've gotta go but I'll hurry and send some pictures of the baptism.
Love you all and have a great week.
ELDER KINGSTON

Moving

hey family
Thankyou so much for the emails and for the pictures of malias blessing.. she looks adorable!
sounds like you all had another week jampacked with fun things to do. and to be totally honest i didnt remember it was memorial day today, but im glad you guys have the day off to hangout.
this last week went pretty good in my area. we moved houses, our new house is so much better and cheaper, we didnt really move far only about 4 blocks.lol it was a bit of work to clean the old house and move though... i hope i dont have to do that again on my mission...lol ill make sure to send pictures of the new house next week...
also this sunday we had 2 investigadores in church. paola and peluche who are neighbors.  they are both really cool. they're just a little confused right now in their lifes but thats why we are here as missionaries... to help them....we put a goal with them to get baptized this sunday they said they will have to think about it.. so we are going to their house tonight to see what they're answer is. im hoping and praying that they will accept...
we also had interviews last week with president romney... he basically told my companion that he was leaving the next change which is next tuesday...so it looks like im gonna be in saltillo for at least a month and a half more which im pretty excited about cause i love it here...to be honest i hate changing areas... because you never know what to expect.. but then after the first week everything is all good.
well i gotta go but remember i love you all and that im always praying for your well being....Love you guys so much
Elder Kingston

Elder Bednar

Hey...=)
thanks so much for the email and all the updates..... sounds like everyone is doing so good and loving life. mom I'm glad you guys had a great trip to Boston, i cant wait to see the pictures. and dad congratulations on your vacation time sounds like you have lot of great things planned. i was scared to hear that grandma fell... but I'm relieved that she is okay and I'm sure that is because of the priesthood blessing grandpa gave her and all the prayers heading her way.
well as for me my week was great... we didn't have much success but we did see Elder Bednar which gave me a boost of spiritual energy. it was remarkable to listen to an apostle of the Lord. he talked with us for about 31/2 hours straight. one of the first things he told us is that we should look at meetings or reunions as time to receive revelation from the lord and that we should take notes on what the speaker is saying and what invites the holy ghost. so i didn't take notes....but i recorded it with the tape recorder you guys sent me..lol he talked to us about prayer... but he didn't really give a talk.... he asked ?s and had people answer, and gave us the chance to ask questions for him to answer... it was pretty much like a discussion.. he said this is the way we need to start teaching in the church... but as a teacher you should not play "what am i thinking in my head?" which is referring to when the teacher has a specific answer in his head and he asks others the ? to see if they know the answer.... he said this is stupid... we need to ask open ?s and we need to ask if anyone would like to comment on the ?.... well that's just a little of what he had to say, sorry I'm rambling on... ill send you guys the tape, he had alot of great things to say.... but i will definitely remember that experience for the rest of my life....
well i gotta go its getting late.... we didn't have time to write during the day... I'm going to start taking notes on things that happened during the week so that its easier to write you guys and so i don't get brain freezes....lol well i hope you all have a great week and always remember i love you all.....

Elder Kingston

Making tortillas

Happy Easter!

Hey Family,

Wow sounds like your week was great! Thanks for the heads up on everything. Congratulations Kingston and Kai on your great games, and Jacosa for that opportunity you had to go to the studio of George Lucas.... Wow....how was it?? and hey Katrina should be having her baby soon right??? Let me know how everything is going with that...also dad sorry to here about what happened to your student, very sad... but like mom said how great it is to know the plan God has in store for us and that we all are going to have the chance to go back and live with our loved ones.... it's just sad that some people have to wait for death to find this out rather than know it here on earth and receive comfort from it.
Well here in Saltillo everything is going very good.... it is alot different than Monterrey and Acuña. It is very calm here. It would probably be like the Idaho of Mexico....lol it's hard at times staying busy here in this area due to nobody wanting to hear us but I know that's exactly what the adversary wants me to feel so I'm going to "put my shoulder to the wheel and push along"...haha (that just came in my mind) but we do have some new investigators that are pretty cool. When we went to bring them to church yesterday they weren't there...=( So we are going to go by today and check out what happened. Their names are Veronica and Juanita. If you guys could add them to your prayers that would be great.
I'm gonna have to keep this letter short because we have alot of things to do and such little time. Just know that I love you all and I'm so grateful for each and every one of you and the influence you all have had on me.
Thanks for everything.
LOVE,
ELDER KINGSTON
OH AND HAVE A HAPPY EASTER. I'LL BE THINKING OF YOU GUYS!

oh and umm I have no clue if it would be cheaper in the US or here in Mexico to buy a camera...... I would think it would be cheaper here. Also, mom don't worry about the pictures, I put them all on a usb memory card before my camera was stolen.

Saltillo (Capital City of Couhuila)

According to the ranking of the Inversionista magazine of 2006, Saltillo is the best Mexican city to live in, chosen from more than 53 Mexican cities. It's nickname is the "Athens" of Mexico.  Population is around 680,000.

HEY FAMILY,
THANKS FOR ALL THE GREAT UPDATES.  SOUNDS LIKE YOU GUYS HAD A GREAT AND BUSY WEEK.   CONGRATULATIONS COSA ON DOING  A FABULOUS JOB IN THE CONCERT.  I HAVE SUCH A WONDERFUL AND TALENTED FAMILY.
WELL I GOT TRANSFERRED HERE IN SALTILLO, MEXICO.  ABOUT AN HOUR FROM MONTERREY BUT IT IS A DIFFERENT STATE.... IT IS ACTUALLY THE CAPITAL CITY OF COUHUILA.   I really like it here.  Everyone is way nice.  It was hard to leave Monterrey especially just as Dad said,  I had to leave all my converts and progressing investigators.   We had 4 that were going to get baptized this last Sunday,  all of whom are family members of my converts that I would have never thought they'd be baptized.  But as you can see there is a time for everyone.  I got bumped up to mayor with my companion being Elder Hernandez Ortiz from Puebla, Mexico.  He has 7 months on the mission.
This area hasn't seen a baptism for 7 months.  Yesterday we were about to have the baptism of Santiago and Guadalupe.  They were all ready and had their clothes with them but then our bishop told us we couldn't baptize until night time since we share the building with 2 other wards. We went to get them at night and they weren't there. =(   it was pretty sad and frustrating, but I know everything happens for a reason.
I had a pretty good experience having to do with a priesthood blessing.   2 weeks ago my companion and I were coming back home from church to change out of our suits when we saw Brother Flores' car out front.  He and his family didn't go to church and that's very rare for them.  ( the Flores family is the family that we lived above, very sweet.   I look to them as being my family here in Mexico) Well,  we knocked on their door and Carlos opened the door looking very disanimated.   We asked what was wrong.  He told us that Saturday he got a call from the Zetas who are basically an organized crime family here in the northern part of Mexico.   They demanded money or they would kill him and his family.   He said they talked very rough with him and the only thing he could do was give them money.   I don't remember how much money he sent them but it was alot.   This family, I would say,  are like our family,  very joyful and happy all the time so  seeing them afraid and scared,  not knowing what to do really made me sad.  My companion and I then sang to them the hymn "OH ESTA TODO BIEN".  The spirit lifted in the room and I could sense a state of peace.  I then gave Brother Flores a priesthood blessing, wow what a powerful and great experience that was! After that he gave his wife one of the most beautiful blessings I have heard.   I know these blessings come directly from Heaven and they are the words of God Himself.   I  know that if we are righteous priesthood holders we are able to bless others by the power of God.  In this case it was a blessing of comfort.  After seeing the change from sadness and  fear to happiness and hope it brought joy to my soul.  I am so grateful for these wonderful experiences the Lord is giving me.  I truly will cherish them forever.
Well I'd better get going.  My time is up!  Just remember I love all of you and the Lord.  I hope you all have a great week.... LOVE ELDER KINGSTON

OH!  ALSO I HAVE SOME BAD NEWS . . . .  DURING CHANGES SOMONE STOLE MY CAMERA...=(  I BELEIVE IT WAS SOMEONE FROM THE BUS STATION.

3/15/2010 - Transferred

Hey family I'm just writing to tell you guys that I won't be writing you this week because I'm pretty sure I'm going to get transferred and everybody else has Mondays for pday.  Our district's pday is Friday because we have the assistants and the elders in the offices.  So since I won't have pday this Friday you guys will have to wait until next Monday.... okay love you guys!
ELDER KINGSTON
oh hey mom thankyou so much for the package you sent it was very special....=) and thanks Kingston and Kai for your beautiful pictures and letters you guys wrote.... love you guys....
oh and mom can you send me Keva's letters too??? thankyou so much