12/29/08 Email Message to Kendall

Kendall!,

Hows my favorite almost 15 year old sister? Wow I cant believe you are almost 15! I remember when you werent even a whole day old yet. I remember being 4 years old, going to the hospital not knowing what to expect; I was even a little nervous. But then I remember sitting down in a big soft chair and Dad putting you in my arms. You were so cute and tiny - I remember thinking I had never seen a baby so cute before. I wanted to just sit there all day cuddled up with my new little sister. That is definitely one of my most precious memories. And now here you are getting ready to turn 15 years old on me - thats incredible.

Im sorry I didnt get to talk to you more on Christmas. I wish I had an hour with each family member. How is everything? How was your Christmas? I hope it was awesome and that you got a lot of cool presents. What was your favorite gift? I hope you had fun with the family! Are you excited to go back to school? How is school by the way? Are you liking 9th grade? Whats your favorite part so far? and if you want you can tell me your least favorite part too. Do you like seminary with Sister Mitchell? I hope you are having a great time in her class. She is awesome! After you are done with her seminary class, you will spend the rest of high school wishing you could go back. So enjoy it while you have it! I hope life is good! I hope you are doing all you want to and having fun doing it. I miss you so much! You are growing up so fast! Next year youll be driving already! I guess youll just have to take me out for a drive when I get home - deal?

I think about you all the time - I wish I could talk to you more often. But I hope all is well!

I love you so much! You are awesome!

Much Love,

Elder Brendan Kingsford

I have never seen her so happy before

12/22/08 Email Message

Family,

Im glad to hear Kimberly and the baby are alright. That must have been really scary - but Im glad everything is alright. They are both in my prayers. Im looking forward to meeting my little nephew in a couple of years!

I just wanted to let you know about Su san. She was baptized on Saturday afternoon and confirmed on Sunday during sacrament meeting. It was so cool! I felt so lucky to get to baptize her and share that experience with her. Im sure she will remember that day for the rest of her life. Afterwards she kept saying how happy she was. I have never seen her so happy before. She was just beaming all night long. It was soo cool. The spirit at her baptism kai (baptism meeting) was incredible. It was very simple and sweet. It reminded me of the way I used to feel sometimes while I was in primary. I remember when I was a sunbeam there used to be a picture on the wall of Jesus and all the little children crowded around Him. I would always grab the seat with the best view of that picture. I used to look at it all the time and I would picture myself as one of those children and wonder what it would be like to be that close to Him and to feel his arms around me. At those times I would be so concentrated on my imagination of that, that it would feel like nothing else mattered. It was like all that existed in the world was me and the love of Jesus. Its been a long time since I was a Sunbeam, but on Saturday I had that same feeling again. While Su san and I were sitting there in our baptism whites getting ready to enter the water, I felt like all that mattered in the world was the love of Jesus. And the funny thing is that is probably the truth. Sometimes I get so preoccupied with all that is going on in life that I forget to think of what is really important. I forget that it really is all about Jesus. Its funny how easy it was to know that when I was a sunbeam. How could I have been so much smarter as a 4 year old than I am now? I guess Ill be working my entire life to be as good as I was when I was 4.

I love you all! Im looking forward to calling you on Christmas. I think Im going to call at 9 am my time. Ill let you know if anything changes between now and then. I love you and I hope you all have a great Christmas together! Talk to you soon!

Much Love,

Elder Brendan Kingsford

Su San is getting baptized this Saturday!

12/15/ Email Message

Mom,

I am so happy the Choir Concert was so good. It is so cool that Mike and Laurie went. What an amazing setting to experience the spirit of Christmas. Im happy for them and for Little Michael, Im sure the spirit of the nativity made a great impression on his little heart. I love that festival.

Too bad it didnt snow! Snow in Alabama is always fun - we definitely dont get enough of it. Hopefully, Kendall will get snow sometime this year. Funny thing is I bet it is colder in Alabama than it is in Nagaoka right now. Its been surprisingly warm so far. It was really cold for a week, but ever since then its been pretty warm. We havent seen snow since that one day we were dendoing [proselyting] in it. Not that Im complaining - Id prefer it never snowed again. Dendoing in the snow is not exactly my favorite thing in the world.

One sad thing about the warm weather is it detracts even more from the Christmas season. Christmas in Japan just isnt quite the same. Its a little sad to know we are ten days away from Christmas because it just doesnt feel like Christmas at all. But it is better when we are with the church members. Yesterday we watched the Christmas devotional with our district and then we went caroling with the missionaries in our zone and some members. It was cool - it created a little bit of the Christmas spirit, but I still miss Christmas in America.

However, Su San is getting baptized this Saturday! She asked me to baptize her too so that should be pretty exciting. Everyone is so excited for her. The branch members love her and she loves them. She is going to fit right into the church I think. She will be a great member. So cool!

Im just as surprised as Elder Rowley is [at how fast ime is passing]! A couple days ago I was wearing the tie he and his companion gave me and I was looking at the notes they wrote me on it. I was blown away that they gave me that tie over six months ago. It doesnt feel like Im already a fourth of the way through my mission. I seriously dont know where the last six months went.

I still dont even know what Im doing! I feel like I just wake up, go to work and the Lord does the rest. Even with all my shortcomings the work gets done. Everyone tells me that feeling never goes away. You never feel quite adequate. But still the work gets done. Pretty amazing!

Im looking forward to calling everyone next week! I think dads plan sounds good, but Ill let you know more specifically when the time gets closer. I love you! I miss you and the family so much, especially now around the Christmas season. I hope you all have a great holiday together and really enjoy the season. Just know Im thinking about you and love you all so much!

Merry Chrsitmas!

Much Love,

Elder Kingsford

She has chosen to change her life so much already

12/9/08 Email Message

Dad,

Dont you love the Alabama weather? I dont think theres anything else like a clear fall morning in the Tennessee Valley. We are so blessed to live there. When we first moved there I remember I was having kind of a rough time with the move. But I remember every once in a while when we were alone together you would point out some of the amazing blessings we got from living there. You used to say it was like we were living in heaven. At first I thought you were just saying things to get me to cheer up, but after a while I started to agree with you. Now my vision of heaven looks an awful lot like an autumn morning in North Alabama.

Im glad to hear the holidays are as exciting as ever. Im also glad you all had a good Thanksgiving with Aunt Tracy. Theres nothing like spending the Holidays with family. Im excited to hear how the Stake Choir performance goes. Hopefully Ill be able to make it to one of those again sometime. That choir is amazing, and I love seeing Mom perform. I hope she has a good time.

Things here are going good. We are busy preparing for Sue sans baptism next Saturday. I am so excited for her! Its amazing that someone can find the gospel and in a little over two months be baptized into the Church. The faith and trust it takes to do that is incredible. She has chosen to change her life so much already. She has quit smoking and drinking, she has given up tea and coffee, she reads her scriptures everyday, she comes to church every sunday, and she prays to Heavenly Father every day even though 3 months ago she didnt even know who He was. And she has chosen to do all of that simply because she felt the Spirit and feels that it is right. That is a miracle! Its been an amazing process to witness first hand and a joy to take part in. It really has been incredible. Ill be sure to let you know how the baptism goes next week.

Also, Christmas is in a couple weeks and that means I get to call home in a couple weeks! But I was thinking it would be a good idea to coordinate that with each other. What time should I call? I think the plan is to call you and then hang up and have you call me back. But just let me know when the best time to call is. Just remember I am 14 hours ahead of you.

I love you! I hope you have a good time preparing for Christmas and I hope the family has a great holiday season!

Much Love,

Elder Kingsford

The gospel is all about families

12/1/08 EmailMessage

Family,

Wow Thanksgiving sounds like it was fun! I was a little sad I was missing out on it again this year, but Im glad you all had so much fun. My companion and I had white rice and seaweed for dinner. It was pretty sad. But the good news is Im only going to miss one more, and then hopefully Ill be at home for the next one.

Mom, in your email you said you didnt know how I was handling everything so well without your help, and to be honest I dont know either. My long phone calls with you are probably the thing I miss the most. I guess Ive just learned to replace those with long talks with Heavenly Father. But things are great here!

Last week we set a baptism date with Sue san! Shes getting baptized on December 20! We are so excited for her. She is sooo cool! I think shes going to be a great member. I feel priveleged to have been able to teach her and help her learn about the gospel. Im so happy that she has chosen to get baptized. Last month our Mission Pesident challenged us all to help someone enjoy a white Christmas at the baptismal font this year - Im glad we are going to be able to meet that challenge.

Also we met with that family from Myanmar on Sunday and they seem great. We sat down and taught the whole family - the mom, the dad, and the two kids - and it went really well. They were so happy to talk about the gospel. They were especially excited about the news of a living prophet of God. Im excited to see what comes out of this. The gospel is all about families, so the chance to teach a whole family about the blessings of the gospel is really exciting.

I love my mission. Im having a great time. There is a new challenge for me to overcome everyday and as a result I have to depend on God a little bit more each day. Its definitely a humbling experience, but its wonderful at the same time. Im so excited to see what is waiting for me during the rest of my mission. Every day is an adventure.

I love you! I miss you all so much, especially during the holiday season. But I hope you all have a great time together and enjoy the holidays. I love you!

Much Love,

Elder Kingsford

P.S. - dad, all the apartments have a cd player.