Sept. 7th - 1ST AREA: SAN JUAN OPICO

Que Pasa?

 

How's everyone doing?  How's boring old k-town?  Well,  I know you all have lots of questions so I'm just going to get straight to it. When I found out who my companion was,  Elder A.....he got so excited he picked me up and gave me a hug and President Hinzte and everybody in the mission laughed!  Hahaha!  My area is a little town called San Juan Opico and its about an hour west by bus of San Salvador.  Theres a lot of poverty so theres a lot of people who love to hear the gospel. But there is like 5 different churches here and it's messed up.  I remember one said....The Church of the Gods.

  

Well there is me, Elder A.,  Elder J. who is from Arizona (he has been out a month longer then me) and its funny because he went to Provo MTC and the natives always make fun of him because my Spanish is way better then his. But he talks it like a champ and likes to have fun as well.  And there is another elder from Honduras. He's freaking funny and way good at soccer.

 

This week has been full of adventure and I can't even write it all down,  Hahaha!   Me and Elder A. have 2 baptismal dates this month and I'm super excited about that.  Hermana R. and Hermano U.  They're both super good people and their families are not members so we are working with them.

 

Every Friday night it's about 1 dollar to play a pick up basketball games with the locals its sooooo fun.  Elder A. balls.  He was in the Guatemala draft for professional basketball but he decided to go on a mission.  He had like 7 blocks last Friday,  Hahaha!  We killed them like 56 to 20,  Hahaha!!  It's all fun here tho...everybody has a good spirit. and I love my mission and everybody in it.

 

se que la iglesia es verdadera. se que e espiritu santo es muy muy fuerta agui. yo entiendo el evangelio en ingles. pero el senor respuesta oraciones en espanol. es e broma aqui. se que jose smith fue a profeta de dios y thomas s monson es e profeta ahora. se que el libro de mormon es la palabra de dios.

 

Te Amo,

Elder Gee

Me and my comp Elder A.

 

Elder Shirley heading back home the day I arrive!
He is the son of a good friend of my mom and dad.

 

Church with my room mates

 


Stabbed him with a El Salvador flag pole!

Sept 4th - LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

MISIÓN EL SALVADOR

SAN SALVADOR OESTE/BELICE

Boulevard del Hipódromo No. 537

Colonia San Benito

San Salvador, El Salvador C.A.

Tel.: (503) 2524-4800, Fax: (503) 2524-4800

Apartado Postal #81 Correos Multiplaza, S.S.

e-mail: 2011271@ldschurch.org

                                                                                                                    September 3, 2015

                               

Dear Gee Family,

 

We are pleased to inform you that Elder Gee has arrived safely in the El Salvador San Salvador West/Belize Mission.  We are excited to have him join our mission family, and can see that he is well prepared to start serving.

 

He is serving in the Arce Zone, and in the Opico 2 Area, with his trainer Elder Arriola from Guatemala.

               

Elder Gee will be able to e-mail or write to you every Monday.  Letters from home are a very important part of missionary life.  Please write weekly and focus on positive and uplifting things to help him maintain a healthy attitude.  The mail system in El Salvador is reliable.  If you wish to send packages they can be sent to the mission office.  Address them to:

 

Elder Kyle Roland Gee

Misión El Salvador San Salvador Oeste/Belice

Apartado Postal #81, Correos Multiplaza

San Salvador, El Salvador

 

We know the Lord will bless you and him as he faithfully dedicates this time to teaching others to follow the Savior Jesus Christ.

                                                                                  

Very cordially,

President & Sister Hintze

 

 

Elder Gee and his companion Elder A., and President and Sister Hintze



                                                   

Que Pasa?

 

How's everyone doing?  How's boring old k-town?  Well,  I know you all have lots of questions so I'm just going to get straight to it. When I found out who my companion was,  Elder A.....he got so excited he picked me up and gave me a hug and President Hinzte and everybody in the mission laughed!  Hahaha!  My area is a little town called San Juan Opico and its about an hour west by bus of San Salvador.  Theres a lot of poverty so theres a lot of people who love to hear the gospel. But there is like 5 different churches here and it's messed up.  I remember one said....The Church of the Gods.

  

Well there is me, Elder A.,  Elder J. who is from Arizona (he has been out a month longer then me) and its funny because he went to Provo MTC and the natives always make fun of him because my Spanish is way better then his. But he talks it like a champ and likes to have fun as well.  And there is another elder from Honduras. He's freaking funny and way good at soccer.

 

This week has been full of adventure and I can't even write it all down,  Hahaha!   Me and Elder A. have 2 baptismal dates this month and I'm super excited about that.  Hermana R. and Hermano U.  They're both super good people and their families are not members so we are working with them.

 

Every Friday night it's about 1 dollar to play a pick up basketball games with the locals its sooooo 

fun.  Elder A. balls.  He was in the Guatemala draft for professional basketball but he decided to go on a mission.  He had like 7 blocks last Friday,  Hahaha!  We killed them like 56 to 20,  Hahaha!!  It's all fun here tho...everybody has a good spirit. and I love my mission and everybody in it.

 

se que la iglesia es verdadera. se que e espiritu santo es muy muy fuerta agui. yo entiendo el evangelio en ingles. pero el senor respuesta oraciones en espanol. es e broma aqui. se que jose smith fue a profeta de dios y thomas s monson es e profeta ahora. se que el libro de mormon es la palabra de dios.

 

Te Amo,

Elder Gee

Sept. 3rd - FIRST LETTER FROM EL SALVADOR!

Hey Momma, what's up?  I am sorry I couldn't call by that's against the rules here so I didn't and we didn't have time to send our family anything.  So right now is my second day in the mission field and its sooooo much more different than the MTC,  but I love it because its real down here.

 

My trainer is native....his name is Elder A.  He is like 6'2 and I heard from President Hintze that he plays basketball.  He is way cool and he speaks really good English so he helps me a ton.  Right now I'm in a pretty poor area, its not the nicest but its differently not the worst.  I have 4 elders from my MTC zone in my area, so thats pretty cool.  President Hintze is freakin ballin and so is his wife.  The best way to put the mission right now is that its way relax and the Hintzes aren't too strict. 

 

Anyways I am here right now because my companion is filling out paper work because last week he had to get eye surgery. He was playing basketball here and got scratched and cut his eye. So I'm able to check my email right now, Hahaha!   But my p-day is Monday at 9 o'clock for an hour and a half.

And tomorrow we have to go to the big city and get Elder A's eye checked, so it's field trip for me, Hahaha!!  

 

Anyways,  I love you and I don't have much time right now to explain everything because we actually flew into San Salvador not by a bus because the riots,  Hahaha!  

So I love you more then words can describe....yesterday I felt a little homesick because everything is new again for me and I almost cried because I wish I could hug you, but I'm hanging in there.  It gets easier everyday and everyday we get closer to persevering to the end!

 

I love you and I promise to write more on Monday.

 

Elder Gee

 

P.S.: tell the family I love them sooo much.

Sept 1st - LEAVING GUATEMALA

 

EXCERPT FROM MOMMA GEE:

Tyler had a friend from his office that was heading down to the Guatemala MTC the same day Kyle was leaving.  What a tender mercy!! She was kind enough to take a package to him (and two other missionaries) just as they were heading out.  She and her husband took these pictures of Kyle and his companion Elder Hallman.



 

 

 

The elders left the MTC on a bus (pictured on the left) and headed to El Salvador.  It is about a 4 hour drive.  As they were leaving the city of Guatemala, the riots and protesting were so bad in the streets that they couldn't drive.  The bus driver told the boys that they are turning around and heading back to the MTC.  They were sad and didn't want to.  After an hour of driving around, the bus driver dropped all 34 missionaries off at the airport.  There was someone from the church meeting them there and purchased airfare for them all.  They had to wait 6 hours until the flight left.  They ended up arriving in El Salvador 8 hours later than scheduled. 

The bus ride!
(Photo Credit: Elder Eggers)
 

Getting dropped of at the airport.
(Photo credit: Elder Eggers)

FINALLY...arriving in El Salvador!!
(Photo Credit: Elder Eggers)



Aug 25th - I JUST WANT MY PAPUSAS!

Hola familia! Como estan?  It's never a bad week up here in the CCM it's so much fun!  So today is our p-day and we were supposed to see Elder Russell M Nelson speak in a devotional.  But we couldnt because apparently there are riots in Guatemala because the president of the country is super bad at running the government.  They are rioting because they want him to step down.  In the night a teacher who leaves in the city said he heard gun shots shooting and everyone wants the president's head.  Pretty crazy stuff...so, Elder Nelson couldn't come down because it wasn't safe.

This is my last p-day in the CCM and I'm super pumped to get the heck outa here!!  I just want to be out in El Salvador with my papusas everyday,  Hahaha!!  But for the most part this week hasn´t been too exciting, just study and teach in spanish all day...everyday.  It's so fun tho because I love my comp and my district.  Long Live Distrito Pedro!!!

 

But last sunday we met another guy in the area presidency in Guatemala and he is awesome.  He told us about how you should set your goals to thousands of baptisms because if you have enough faith...God will provide the people who are ready to recieve it...you just have to open your mouth. 

I love you guys so much and I want you guys to know that I feel your prayers all the time.  When I'm struggling with spanish...teaching...and just trying to have a good attitude the spirit is always there for me.

yo se que el evangelio de jesucristo es verdadero. yo se que jesucristo es mi redentor y vive. estoy agradicido por mi compenero todos los dias tambien mi distrito. mas importantmente yo se que mi familia es el meyor y son eternos!!!!

Muchas Amor,
Elder Gee

Aug 18th - DO YOU LOVE GOD?

Que pasa familia?  Well this week has absolutely flown by.  It's absolutely crazy how fast it goes when you have a ballin comp like I do, as well as fresh to death district!  Its going by way fast I cant believe I've been out a whole month.

This week was a huge gut check because the pace of the language went up as well as the intensity. I remember we had a fake investigator and he wouldn't except the church at all  and wouldn't believe in God.  He was giving my comp a hard time when we were trying to teach. I interrupted him and tried to defend my comp saying in spanish....do you love God?  And he said yeah and continued to bible bash the church...and then I replied back...then why cant I feel that love in you?  He stood there for like 10 minutes and then Elder Hallman and I began to teach more.  After the lesson we invited him to be baptized and he accepted it.  I know it was just practice teaching but it felt so real when I spoke those words...I didn't even know if it really made sense but my teacher who was the fake investigator said that it was really powerful Elder Gee.  You have a great gift of bringing the spirit.  It felt so cool...cooler then scoring the game winning goal in lax hahaha!!  I know it doesn't make sense at first but I feel so close to God and I can accomplish all things as he continues to strengthen me. When I am getting frustrated with others I just remember to myself...that every soul is great in the eyes of God and we should love them as God sees them and find the saviors lost sheep.

Thanks to all the emails of encouragement it means the absolute world to me...when I am teaching with the holy spirit or having a tough time which is like everyday, I can feel your prayers.  It's so powerful it makes me shake, Hahaha! 

I love every single one of you and know that this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ and he indeed lives and help us out of our burdens if we are worthy.  Be patient and always strive to do what's right.

I love you so much,

Elder Gee aka El Guapo!

New district photo

Aug 11th - DOUBLE DRAGON!

This second week has flown by super fast! They have us teach in Spanish a lot and it's way hard the first couple of times, but it gets way easier the more times you do it.  I am starting to pick it up a little bit! I am not fluent but I understand roughly 60% if what's being said.  And today during Fast Sunday, I passed the sacrament and bore testimony in Spanish.  It was super cool because the President said to me afterwards, "We could all feel that one Elder Gee, goo job!"  IDK why, but the spirit is Spanish is stronger, it just feels like it!

I've made a lot of cool kids here, they all will be great missionaries.  We have a strong district with a bunch of cool kids.  I also got a PSG jersey from a little shop in the MTC, I know Josh will really appreciate this because its all white with a Nike sign for $15.

Where the MTC is located is pretty funny!  To your left you got the temple and on the right you have a Corona Bar that plays music all day and all night, Hahaha!  And they only play American songs like, the new hits! We try and sleep but we can hear the drunk people sometimes, Hahaha!

Also, there was a bad case of food poisoning her in the MTC.  It was so bad that kids during lessons have to crap and throw up the same time!!  We call that the "double dragon", I didn't get sick luckily.  I think it was from the chicken noodle soup.

I hope everything is going good, I pray everyday for my family.  And I thank the Lord everyday for my mission so far.  It's been awesome.

Yours truly,
Elder Kyle "El Guapo" Gee



My district in the MTC



My Zone