Monday, July 1st, 2019

Translation: Take care of the children; they are precious.

As you know, we are the only missionaries here in Kaw River, and there used to be 3 sets, (one senior couple) and sometimes a 4th set. So we've been super busy. A lot of it is teaching the Sisters’ recent converts, which are mostly kids. I have really enjoyed it because I'm not too good with kids, and so I've gotten the chance to get to figure it out a little better. On Wednesday, we got to go to this family's house and we taught their kids some of the new member lessons. They are from Mexico. Anyways their kids wanted us to play basketball with them afterwards on their like 7 and a half foot hoop and it was tons of fun. We played on just this little porch and had a blast. 

On Monday, we had a really cool lesson with another recent convert family. He is struggling with some old habits, but he is having dreams where his dad, who has passed, is coming to him. He sees him all the time, so we are trying to get him on the path for the temple. It was such a humbling experience though. They have 5 kids and their living circumstances are so humbling. They made us a bench to sit on with bricks and a plank of wood so we didn't have to sit in the dirt. They are so kind. 

We have found a lot through the members this week. We got the chance to see the spirit work in our planning and we went to a member’s house. She opened the door, and it turns out her sister, a member, and her husband, a non-member, just moved here from Honduras like a month ago! So we got to teach Alfredo on Saturday and it went really well. 

We also started teaching this lady who a member brought to church. Her name is Ana and she is from Guatemala. When she first got here, she and her son were living on the streets. Prayer after prayer was answered and she is now living with a member (they both rent a room in a house.) She is on date for July 20th. 

There is a family we are going to start teaching that is another part Member family. They are living together, but not married, and he said himself that that is the only reason he's not baptized, and it's not that easy to get married. We think it's because he would have to go back to Mexico, not knowing if he can get back in the country, pay a lot of money for a divorce, and then maybe get back in the country. But we are gonna work with them and see what happens. 

We got to see a motorcycle chase on Saturday. The cops didn't stand a chance, that thing was flying. 

Everyone has started their fireworks really early and they just set them off all the time; it is awesome. It is gonna be nuts and I'm pretty excited. 

It has also been so hot here. The humidity is a game changer and I am just drenched.

I also got to do a baptismal interview this week in Spanish with a lady that the Overland Park Elders are teaching, and it was cool to see how much she opened up in Spanish! It was awesome. 

I love you and thanks for everything.

Elder Ogden

Just funny!

Monday, June 24th, 2019

This week has been a pretty fun one, jam packed with miracles. On Monday, we had dinner with a Venezuelan family (there's quite a few of them here) and holy smokes, that woman can cook. We had arrepas, this soup, and a ton of other stuff and I thought I was going to die because I ate so much. 

Tuesday was full of meetings. First, we had mid-trainers meeting at the mission home, which is pretty much where they see how the training is going, then they separate the trainers from the trainees. It was an interesting one this time. Then directly after that we had another meeting in Liberty, which was a Priesthood leadership meeting. It was a really cool experience. It was also fun to see my trainers and some former companions there, and just some people that I've grown close to. 

After that meeting, we had a total miracle. We had a return appointment with a lady named Norma, from Mexico. As we were walking up to the door (the screen door was open), everyone got up from the table and went and hid throughout the house. We obviously knew that they were home, so we knocked a couple times, until a lady named Elizabeth came and answered. She said she was visiting from Orlando, FL, which is pretty much where Elder Alexander is from. We got talking to her and she invited us in. Everyone else was still hiding, but we taught her the Restoration and she felt something during the First Vision. At the end, she had told us that she had been feeling distant from God lately (long story) and she was so thankful. She is going back to Florida in about a week, but it was such a miracle. 

We had to run literally everyone [all the elders on P Day] across town to get some medicine today. After that, we stayed in the area and found a lady named Calandra, who was definitely the reason why we had to run all the way across town. She was super prepared and has had some pretty hard stuff happen in her life recently. 

Another miracle was Thursday night. We had an appointment fall through, so we stayed in the area and knocked on some apartments. As we were getting to the last apartment building, we saw a big man come out of his apartment from the 2nd floor, bend over to see us through the glass door, and then tell the people in his apartment something. We walked into the building and shook his hand and they just let us in immediately. It was weird because that never happens. As we got talking, we learned that 2 months ago they had moved here from Honduras and were members! They had to leave pretty much everything behind, like scriptures and stuff, and they had no idea where the Church was. There were 2 families living in this apartment, and they were both so happy to finally find us and that we spoke Spanish haha. Another church has helped them a ton here and it seems like they had been going there for a little bit, but they were so thankful they found the missionaries. 

There were so many miracles this week it was ridiculous. Lil things. Like on Saturday there was a huge storm coming, and it was about 8:55 pm. We work until 9, but imma be honest it was tempting to head in, it was about to get really bad. But, we were in the hood of the hood and had to make the best of it. We decided to go try a member. When we got there, there were 2 guys chillin in their car. We knocked on their window and ended up talking a bit teaching them like a 5 minute ‘Resto’ [Restoration lesson] and they were interested and it went really well. (One of them was from Durango by the way, primo.) At about 9:05 we went to get in the car and literally the second I opened my door, on the other side of the street it just started to POUR rain. We got in the car and that second, it started raining where we were. We didn't get a single drop on us and it was supposed to come a little earlier. It was kinda cool. 

I got to go on 2 exchanges this week. One of them was with Elder Sickler, who I lived with when I served in Santa Fe. The other was with Elder Hamby. Both of them were pretty fun. The one with Elder Hamby ended with a baptismal interview I gave to 2 of the people they are teaching.

A man named Gilberto we are teaching is on date for July 21st. He is so humble and we hope he continues to progress. We are also working with a member referral named Ana, who just moved here from Guatemala a little bit ago and has been coming to church with a sister in the ward. Things are going pretty well!

Speaking of Santa Fe, I got to see the Elders Quorum President and the Bishop on Saturday because there was a wedding at our church building that they were officiating. The bride and groom were over an hour late and we had to go, but we were invited because there was gonna be some non-members that lived in our area that were gonna come, but that didn’t happen.

That's about it this week. I love you and thank you for everything!

Elder Ogden

Cute puppy I saw

Monday, June 17th, 2019

 Elder Ogden with one of his favorite companions, Elder Hamby, at Zone Conference.

Elders Ogden and Alexander with another elder at Zone Conference.

This week was a pretty fun one with a lot of miracles!! I loved it but at the same time I don't remember anything and don't know what's going on. So hold on.

On Monday we had dinner with a family named the Albrechtsens. They are awesome, and actually live pretty much in my old area, but were brought into Kaw River to help the youth. He is a professional artist. He actually has artwork in temples and even painted the mural in one the rooms in the Kansas City temple. The man has so much talent and he is awesome. 

We had Zone conference on Tuesday, which was awesome. We had Elder Ringwood of the 70 there and his wife, who is the daughter of President Nelson. They have like the same eyes it was crazy. 

We had a Portuguese dinner this week! We were actually able to understand a lot, and they could understand a lot of what we were saying in Spanish, too. The languages are very similar, it's just vocab that’s different (and probably other things.) It was fun and they are the nicest people in the world. The husband (of the young couple that lives here) is going to KU Medical school and he had his mom from Brasil visiting (his wife is also from Brasil). It was super fun. 

One night we were in an area of town and we just got done talking to someone at around 8:50ish, and we stop working at 9 o’ clock. We weren't gonna drive anywhere else, because we didn't have a lot of time or anything, so we just street contacted outside of a bar and then a liquor store parking lot. The people were actually pretty nice haha. Just kind of ironic. 

We are teaching a Cuban man named Andrés. Every Cuban I've ever met has just the most crazy story about how they got to the country, because they literally have to sacrifice everything. This guy in particular pretty much walked through Guinea, Brasil, then Peru, in a lil boat around Nicaragua to Ecuador, to Panama, and then there for 3 months to work a bit, then to Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and here. He would go like 5 days with no food, no water. Just the nicest guy in the world though. But every Cuban just has some crazy story. He got arrested once he was here due to immigration, but they apparently are pretty lenient with Cubans because the country is so bad or something. It was really humbling. Cubans are also very hard to understand, probably the hardest. Even other Hispanics have a hard time, so we know the gift of tongues is with us in those lessons. 

Love you so much, thank you for everything!!

Elder Ogden

P.S. a bird pooped on me

Note from Esther: Zachary sent me this most beautiful quote that just absolutely melted my heart. The English translation is roughly, "For me there is nothing better in existence than a mother that loves/moves me, I would choose her in a thousand more lives".

Monday, June 10th, 2019

Elders Alexander and Ogden with the Andrade kids!

Honestly, this week I did nothing but eat absolute garbage. Ha! I had Chick-Fil-A twice, then a place called Slaps which was a killer BBQ, lemme tell ya. 

We also got to eat at a member’s food truck. It is called GG’s Barbacoa and Cafe. It is so unique; it was awesome!!

A member took us to a BBQ joint this week. I grabbed the cups for soda, and I asked him what he wanted. He said "I know I'm not supposed to, but get me tea." Then he went and sat down. So I got him Coca-Cola and told him they were out. Hopefully I don't get condemned for that one. 

We ate dinner with a lady named Hermana Peralta and all I could think about was Brooklyn 99. 

We talked to a dood this week WHO WAS STRAIGHT FROM COLOMBIA AND ONLY SPOKE SPANISH IT WAS AWESOME and he was interested, so we gotta contact him soon. 

Elder Alexander and I also got sick on Thursday, that was miserable. During a couple of contacts this week, my nose was just draining. I sneezed a lot too, so I had one contact with some recent converts where I turned around to sneeze and just had a snot rocket shoot out of my face at 10 million miles an hour. That was a little embarrassing haha. It's been an interesting week. 

We went to dinner to Wendy's with the Andrades, and their little girl likes to snag our name tags from us. She also gets under the table and ties our shoes together. 

We got to play basketball on the street with some kids with a soccer ball on a 7 and a half foot hoop haha it was so fun. 

That's about all for this week, I love you so much…

Ahhhchoo!

Elder Ogden 

Monday, June 3rd, 2019

Elder Fenton and Elder Ogden right before Zachary was transferred from Santa Fe to the Kaw River area in Kansas City, KS.

Elder Ogden and some great families that he loves in Santa Fe...little Juan to the left of Elder Ogden and the Chavez family pictured above.

The tornado [last week] was wack!! I was down in Olathe, and we didn't get hit with anything, but there are a couple people in our area that got hit. It completely ripped apart some homes. Crazy stuff, almost the whole mission, even in Olathe, had to go to a member’s basement and stay there for like 2-3 hours. It was so boring, Elder Fenton and I just played with those marble contraption things and cleaned up toys for a family from their grandkids. Fun stuff. 

Honestly, so much happened this week. We got chased by a dog that was gonna eat us. I've never ran faster in my life. We found this part of our area where it is dirt roads and looks straight up like the jungle. We found Hispanic people, pretty much living in shacks. It was awesome. They were super nice and extremely drunk, but it was so fun. 

We went to go to see this recent convert one night, and ended up talking to his family. Then some Puerto Rican guy came up, and he just got kicked out of his house and he is sleeping on their porch right now. Anyways, we taught him about God's love and the Book of Mormon, and he loved it! He started just bawling his eyes out. 

My first full day in the area we helped people move. Twice. One of them was absolutely nasty. Thank you for being clean. 

I love the Kaw, but it was really hard to leave the people in Olathe 1st. Especially the Chavez family. Juan, the youngest, said he thought he was gonna cry and I almost lost it. They are the best, I'm really gonna miss them. 

I also got to say goodbye to some other people we are teaching and it was bitter sweet. But I love it here. 

I got called to be a district leader again, which I'm really excited for. Elder Hamby is in my district.

I love my new companion. He is a quieter guy, but we have a lot of fun and get along well. He has been out in the field 6 weeks and had a really good 1st trainer, so I'm hoping we will keep the work going strong. The members are awesome. I seriously love this place. 

That's about it for the week. I love you so much, thank you for everything. I actually took pictures!!!! 

Elder Ogden 

Monday, May 27th, 2019

This week we have seen so many miracles, it's been insane. I love it. 

This week was such a good one. It was awesome. We saw so many miracles and it felt like the Lord was just droppin’ miracles in our pockets. It started off with just listening to promptings. For example, we are supposed to head in at 9. Or just work till then. But it was a little after that, but we had a feeling to go find one more person. We started walking around and saw a garage open, and talked to the guy and taught him a little bit! It went well. There were a ton of other promptings that came and we obeyed, and then it went in our favor. 

At the end of the week, we didn't see it coming at all, but we have 2 more people on date, found 3 new people, and had one person come to church!! It was an awesome week and Elder Fenton and I started teaching really well together. It was awesome. One of the best weeks of my mission. 

Had to give a talk in sacrament yesterday. It was atrocious haha, public speaking scares me to death and I just go monotone. It was not good, but it was fun. It was about ministering to the one. 

I got a training call on Saturday, meaning I'm gonna be training a new missionary. I'm super excited. It's gonna be fun. 

We pros balled in the rain. It was actually a nightmare and so wet, we were disgusting. But it was a really good time. None of them wanted to learn more, but it was still a good contact. 

I love you so much and thank you for everything.

Elder Ogden 

P.S. We ordered a bidet in supply orders, as a joke. Look what they sent us. The mission office (a bunch of senior missionaries) get jokes…hahaha! 

Monday, May 20th, 2019

That's awesome that there was a baptism in Southgate [ward]! I'm glad you got to see and be a witness of the light that is brought in from living the Doctrine of Christ! It is truly awesome to see.

We found a ton of new people to teach this week. One of them is on date for June 29th! His name is Javier. His son, who is married to a member, just got baptized in the Gardner ward. Javier only speaks Spanish, so that's where we come in, and he lives in our area. He has a lot of health problems, so he is forced to stay home all day and not work, which makes it really easy for us to meet with him. After inviting him to be baptized and an awesome lesson, we started walking out the door, when all of a sudden, we hear a loud thud. We turned around and Javier was on the floor having a seizure. He has them all the time, so people came out from a bedroom and helped him. He keeps hitting his hard pretty hard too when he falls, so that's not good. Our next lesson, he didn't remember anything we talked about, which is pretty understandable. Good dood.

I got to go on exchanges with Elder Verdoorn on Wednesday. I went to the Stanley area, which is the extremely wealthy ward. It was awesome!!!!! I loved it. Their apartment is crazy nice, even though the AC was broken and so it was super hard and sticky the whole night (the humidity here is so weird). But there were a ton of Spanish people mowing lawns and working construction and stuff, so that was fun to be able to talk to them!! Then we had dinner at this family's home, named the Parkins, and they were super nice and had a real nice home. We had some Traeger cooked chicken that was really good. 

This week a member brought us the best ribs I have ever had in my entire life holy SCHNIKEYS. She also brought us a cookie that was the size of a basketball. We ate it all in about 2 days. #health 

The Chavez family did come to church! It was so good to see them!!! 

We got to go on team ups again with Porter, a youth in the ward who will be going to Brasil on his mission. He and I are pretty tight and get along real well, so it's always fun to go to lessons and stuff with him. It went really well and we saw some miracles from it.  

We started teaching this guy named Carlos who lives with a less active member. It is so humbling. The basements out here are not like they are in Kennewick. They are just cement dungeons with a drain. Idk why, but that’s how it goes. Carlos rents a room in this basement and literally has a dresser and maybe a bed (and some beer) and is the nicest guy in the world. He is awesome and seems to have some real intent. 

I will tell you more later, but I love you so much! Thank you for everything.

Elder Ogden