A Tree with stakes grows straight.

Every week is good. Good area, good companion, good ward, good investigators, good experiences, good missionaries, everything is good. I don't know why but I'm counting my blessings and kind of terrified to come home where everything is going to be different! But I guess I was struggling the first few weeks of the transfer, during that time of transition, so I suppose it'll just take a bit of time and I'll become once again accustomed to the toils of life as a regular, un-set-apart, member of the church. And the joys too.

So this week I went to Providence, Rhode Island. First time I've been there, and it is a pretty dang cool city. I gather it would probably be the most fun city/area to serve in in the mission. I don't know how the Ward is, but the work, I gather, would be great. Its a much larger city than Hartford. Way way more diverse. Anyway, I went on an exchange there with...Elder Burbidge. Elder Burbidge is from SLC and he coincidently was at my farewell. Mom, you met his parents and all that. Yea, well it was great. Elder Burbidge is a radical man, I like him. We talked about SLC the whole time and all the cool places to go and to eat and to do and all. We have some similar interests, so it was a good time. The missionary work was good too. But who cares about that, right? HA! It was good, I felt a lot more comfortable for some reason. I think I'm finally getting into my stride, or whatever you want to call it, here in Avon. Finding my feet. It feels good to be back.

I also had an exchange back in...HAMDEN! Awesome! With Elder Miller's new companion. It was pretty fun to go back down there for a day. Felt good. I love that apartment, the towns, everything. I also got to see two old investigators, which of course was great. I have been so blessed with some excellent areas and people. I am so impressed with so many things. Missionary work is amazing. It just knocks my socks off thinking about it sometimes, the things we do, the experiences we have, the unnumbered opportunities we have for SO many different things. Best thing anyone could ever do in their whole life. And what a blessing to know that you're in the Lord's hands the whole time, especially as you do your best to be faithful. Its beyond me.

We got a good new investigator this week. It was an interesting appointment. He's a real nice guy, way more mellow than most folks around here, feels like he's from out west. Well, we pushed hard on this guy, in a soft way. We asked a bunch of questions about where he's at and what he thinks about some different things. We found that family was his motivation for most things, and eventually that brought us to baptism and we invited him to be baptized, tried to set a date, even got out this tool we use with people to help them focus and stay on track...we were pushing him. But again, somehow we found this perfect balance of being bold but not everbearing. Eventually he just told us he couldn't be ready by the date we offered, and that was fine. We respected that and backed off a bit. But it was cool to see the course of things as they were lead by the Spirit in a very direct direction. Elder Rogers is amazing. He pretty much possesses all the qualities one would consider desirable for a missionary to have. He's a blessed Elder, with many talents, and he seems to be very accountable for each one, putting it to good use. I'm kinda jealous, but I suppose I have my own set of talents, as we all do.

We had another neat appointment where we only talked about 20% of the time. We just asked all these questions to this guy we've been working with. We'd been kinda wondering what the heck to do with him, felt a little bit of a stalemate. Well, like I said, we asked him a TON of questions and just listened. By the end, we knew exactly what to do with him. Its amazing how the Spirit can direct you. Really can give you the words to speak when you need them, and even keep you from speaking when we need not. Its a tough thing we're learning because its such a tendency we often have to just talk and talk to these people. Impart information in mass quantities. Tell them all these things we want them to know. But we're learning to teach more simply, "ask inspired questions" as they say, and listen. We've had some excellent experiences doing so. We want these people to feel the spirit. This guy in particular wasn't keeping commitments very well and we figured out that he did not grasp at all the reason why we were asking him to do things. We'd explained it to him many times, but he has not been internalizing it. Its something I think occurs a lot with people. If anyone understands the WHY of what they're doing, assuming the WHY is important, I think they'll have a lot more motivation to DO IT. Imagine that.

The other night we had a fantastic conversation with President Pehrson. Actually it was more of President talking to us and us listening real close. He told us a bit of his experiences in his career and what he did and accomplished and his journey to it all. We asked him. It was really neat. I knew he was a man of great accomplishment, but he REALLY is. I felt honored to even sit and talk with him by the end. It is such a huge privilege to have the opportunity to interact with a man like this, to observe him, and learn from him. I'd never picture myself sitting down having a casual conversation with a guy who was in his position, but as a mission President, somehow its a different thing. Either way I consider myself very lucky.

Speaking of great people, the Bishop of the ward I am serving in. This guy pretty much amazes me on a daily basis. I can't even begin to tell of all the things he is doing and has done as of late, but he has an incredible capacity to love unconditionally, patience, and Christ-likeness in general. He doesn't have a job right now, and I am sure there is a wise purpose for it, several of which I could easily imagine, given all he's been doing since I've been here. It has been such a privilege to observe him this past month. He's one of the most dedicated people I think I've ever met. I loved the Bishop down in the Woodbridge Ward too. So many great people out here! So many good examples.

Ahhh you guys I have the best job in the world!! The best one in our mission, the best one ever!

I cannot believe its Thanksgiving this week. Seriously its like the end of August right now. Sept, Oct, November I don't know where they came from. Its a blur. I say this all the time but its the most bittersweet thing on this earth.

Love Elder Kunz