I left the wonderful home of Botetourt Wednesday morning and arrived at Charleston West Virginia. Charleston is the central place of our mission where missionaries meet their new companions. I arrived and there was a short meeting. Before the meeting i was able to see Elder Peine!!! It was so awesome to see him after he had left Botetourt. He was my trainer so that was really special. We went into the meeting again and I found out that I was training AGAIN! My new companion is Elder Kelly. He has been out on his mission for only 3 weeks. He is awesome and is great to work with. He want's to work which is really awesome for a new missionary. We got in a car and left Charleston for Paintsville Kentucky! It is a little tiny town hidden in the eastern hills of Kentucky. It's beautiful, for those who remember Michigan it reminds me of Rochester Hills except everyone speaks with a southern accent. It reminds me of that town from the movie "Cars" called Radiator Springs.
I will send a picture in the next email. We are both brand new to the area so the work has been slow, but it has already started to progress. We needed to go through a lot of papers and records that the previous missionaries had kept. The local congregation has welcomed us as they do, they love missionaries here.
Although I have moved i would request that any letters that are sent be mailed to
Elder Kochenderfer
888 Oakwood Dr. Suite 310
Charleston, WV 25314
The best thing that happened this week has been the opportunity to help Elder Kelly learn to teach effectively. It's always nice to go back to the basics. For him we start at the very beginning, which is a very nice place to start.
We've lately been practicing how to teach the message that God is our loving heavenly father. We are literally his offspring here on this earth. He is happy when we are happy and he is sad when we are sad. He knows us personally. We lived with him before we came to earth and that he wants us to return to live with him again.
I taught Elder Kelly to use analogies, it makes learning easier. I told him that our relationship to God is kind of like college. We leave our parents for a period of time to go to learn and become more. Although we don't see them while we are at college, we can talk to them and ask for their advice we can call them as well. We can do the same while here on earth, it's called prayer. Except we can talk to him at any time. We just get on our knees and talk to him.
I hope this helps explain a spiritual concept to you all who read my emails. I hope that the light of God shines in your eyes as you go representing yourselves as his sons and daughters.
It's great to be a child of God.
Sincerley,
Elder Kochenderfer
I will send a picture in the next email. We are both brand new to the area so the work has been slow, but it has already started to progress. We needed to go through a lot of papers and records that the previous missionaries had kept. The local congregation has welcomed us as they do, they love missionaries here.
Although I have moved i would request that any letters that are sent be mailed to
Elder Kochenderfer
888 Oakwood Dr. Suite 310
Charleston, WV 25314
The best thing that happened this week has been the opportunity to help Elder Kelly learn to teach effectively. It's always nice to go back to the basics. For him we start at the very beginning, which is a very nice place to start.
We've lately been practicing how to teach the message that God is our loving heavenly father. We are literally his offspring here on this earth. He is happy when we are happy and he is sad when we are sad. He knows us personally. We lived with him before we came to earth and that he wants us to return to live with him again.
I taught Elder Kelly to use analogies, it makes learning easier. I told him that our relationship to God is kind of like college. We leave our parents for a period of time to go to learn and become more. Although we don't see them while we are at college, we can talk to them and ask for their advice we can call them as well. We can do the same while here on earth, it's called prayer. Except we can talk to him at any time. We just get on our knees and talk to him.
I hope this helps explain a spiritual concept to you all who read my emails. I hope that the light of God shines in your eyes as you go representing yourselves as his sons and daughters.
It's great to be a child of God.
Sincerley,
Elder Kochenderfer