E-mail received 1/25/2010

J's baptism was amazing! the spirit was there so strong and we got a surprise and President B came to the baptism! it was such a blessed occassion. she's getting confirmed next week! she's such a great person. she's really captured the spirit of the church and she's practically more active than half of the members already. she's great and we're so excited for her. One miracle that happened with her is she got really really sick the day before her baptism. we came and gave her a blessing in the afternoon and that night she called and she was completely healed! it was awesome! i'm excited for t! that would be so cool if he got a job with microsoft because then he'd live closer to us! and then he could help out k and m. i can't beleive m got fired! i thought he would finally be able to get a good job and he'd start to straighten out his life but he messed it up! you need to get them to church! by whatever means possible! they're not going to do anything or go anywhere without strong pushes in the right direction, that much is clear. I can't wait to see pictures of M with braces! i'm so happy everyone seems to be doing alright. oh by the way, this should make you laugh, you know how i've been losing a lot of weight? and i've been saying i wouldnt need new pants because i have an awesome amazing ratchet belt? well guess who's awesome amazing ratchet belt is too big now. MINE! i've hit the end of the little nitches in the belt now. it's only a little too big right now but if you could send me a smaller one that would be greatly appreciated. on the upside i look pretty good now! (; i'll send you guys pictures of the baptism. then you can see brother s and j. there truly is no greater work than this. sacrificing two years of my life so that others may live for eternity! tell t that i'm praying for him and p and that i know that no matter what happens with microsoft he has more than enough skills to make it anywhere and that God will always provide a way. keep encouraging k and m to study the scriptures, on their own as well as as a family. oh and by the way i dont know how i lived life without sweet potatoes! they're amazing! I hope everyone is doing well and you are all in my prayers! The work continues to plow forward and i love every minute of it!
-Elder Guinto

E-mail received 1/19/2010

My first baptism is this week! J is getting baptized on the 24th! i'm so pumped! she's come a really long way to get here. i got the package and yes i'm writing it. i'm actually keeping like three journals: one regular journal, the mission journal, and my count your blessings journal. in the count your blessings journal i write down one miracle that happened that day. it's really cool to go back and see how i've literally had a miracle happen every day so far. it's really cool to see how the Lord blesses us. It's been a lot warmer this week but apparently there's always a warm week before it plunges below zero. fun. anyways i hope you guys have a great week and keep reading your scriptures! (katelyn and maleah!) you can't treasure up the words of Christ and learn from them if you don't read them!...so do it!
-Elder Guinto

E-mail received 1/11/2010

Cool. I hope M does alright with school. Keep encouraging her to read her scriptures. the scriptures have all the words of comfort and counsel we could ever need but if we dont read them then we dont get any of it. simple as that. K...dont date. period. yepp, sounds about right. The bishop wants to talk to me about trying to reactivate V because she's been on the do not contact list for a long time. from what i heard from the members it's J P who'll be the hard one but we'll see. i still think that it's no coincidence that my first area in a mission full of them all the way across the country there's a less-active member of my family. Call it what you will but i consider it a sacred trust from my Heavenly Father and so i will strive to do all that i can. I'm not bald anymore. most of it has grown back and it wasnt completely short it was like a 2. so just extremely short. umm i dont know if i told you guys to send me my line of authority, but i really need that. so that would be great. of course T will get a job at microsoft. he's brilliant! he'll be a millionaire within the week. that'll be cool to have them close. i like P. she's pretty cool. umm not much news this week other than the new missionary is elder b. he's pretty cool. he's from san diego. umm one thing i would really like is if Dad feels like it wouldnt be too much of a burden if he would give me his Tagalog Book of Mormon. I've really started to take an interest in my Fillipeno heritage and so if he could do that that would be amazing. Know that you have a Heavenly Father who loves and appreciates you and also a Son who is eternally grateful for the many gifts you have given me and who's love you will always be worthy of.
-Elder Guinto

E-mail received 1/4/2010

That's cool about V. Elder T and i were tracting and we found her. She recognized me as a Vella right away and i was taken a back quite a bit. But i eventually recognized the resemblance between her and P so it was pretty funny. Yeah we're planning on reactivating her. Neither Elder T and I are being transferred. Which is so nice! I was really worrying about it but all of our district except for an Elder who got E.T'd is leaving (I think he meant staying). He was developing a very inappropriate relationship with one of the youth so he had to get pulled out. He got sent to Paterson but we're getting a new elder in tomorrow. i'm pretty stoked that elder t is staying because i dont know if i could've taken total control of the area this soon. by next transfer i should be good though. I ordered my gps. it should come tomorrow. i had a sister from the ward order it for me because she could get a real nice one online for cheaper than i could get a bad one at the store. so she ordered it for me and it should come in tomorrow. i have a few recipts to send you. i bought a lighter weight jacket today. i needed it. it is so cold here. we were tracting one day and we left a bottle in the car for like twenty minutes and came back and it was frozen solid!it's so cold. the thermal garments help but it is just so unbearably cold here. it'll take some getting used to because it only gets colder. oh when you get the recipts if you could send me in an email what my current balance is that would be great. thanks! in some ways i'm glad that the other guy got E.T'd because it meant that Elder R, our district leader, stayed because there were rumors he was going to zone leader and i was going to district leader but thank goodness that didnt happen. life here's going pretty awesome. besides the cold we have a lot of investigators who are progressing really well and we're finding a lot of new people to teach. J continues to progress with trying to stop smoking and drinking coffee. It's hard for her to take these bigs steps in the right direction but something that helps her a lot is support from the members. The members are so important and critical in missionary work because they can be there when we can't. She's developing a good relationship with the S's who are being just awesome. Brother S is our ward mission leader and he's awesome. we had dinner with them last night and J came with and we had a great lesson and set good goals with her to quit smoking and drinking coffee. there's something different about having members in a lesson who both care and are eager to help someone progress in the Gospel. She started crying in the middle of the lesson and said, " I can't beleive there are so many people in this room who care about me so much to invite me into their home and to try and help me with this." One thing that impresses me so much about the Gospel is how it is truly a Gospel of love. The truthfulness of the church is here for one purpose: love. we have a heavenly father who loves us and cares about us and so he sent his Son here to die for our sins so that we could return into his lovingly outstretched arms. And as we follow the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we learn many things but all fall along the lines of the great commandments: love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy strength and with all thy soul, and love thy neighbor as thyself. The Spirit carries that love to the heart of the hearer and it is by love that souls can come unto Christ. Oh i should tell you. right now i'm in a threesome companionship with Elder T, Elder R, and myself because the other elder got E.T'd so we're over the ENTIRE Sparta area! It's really not fun but we're getting the new elder on tuesday so then we'll split the area again. i must say i'm a little disappointed because you guys are the only people that emailed me this week. I was really hoping for an email from A because B was giving her my address but i guess i can hope for next week. Oh and i took some pictures today. that should make you guys happy. the only pictures i've really taken so far have been of my other companions on exchanges and of our threesome. oh another thing. i shaved my head bald... i tried to cut my own hair and found out that that is one of the gifts God did not give me. long story short: i'm bald now. it actually doesnt look that bad. being vastly skinnier doesnt make my head look as round so it actually looks decent. atleast now i wont have to cut my hair for two transfers! anyway i'm glad we survived transfers and we're still together and i'll be in this ward to see J baptised! i'm so excited!tell k sorry i havent sent her a letter yet but i will. we're so short on time because we're over all of Sussex county that i never have time for anything. That's cool that you saw e and d! we had rice pudding at an investigators house the other day and it reminded me of her! I'm sorry about J. Don't worry about me breaking the rules. i've actually been complimented several times at how obediant of a missionary i am. i don't think the rules are stupid i just think our black box which every once and a while won't let us drive anywhere is stupid. but i follow every mission rule as exactly as i can. so don't worry about me. i'm doing great. the church is true and i'm proclaiming the Gospel as the Lord directs my paths and prepares his children for the blessings of heaven!
-Elder Guinto

Letter from Elder Thomas (Kyle's companion) dated 12/24/2009, received 12/31/2009

We received a letter from Kyle's companion, Elder Thomas, that I thought I'd share with you...

Dear Guinto Family,

This is Elder Thomas and I just wanted to write you guys.  First of all I hope Elder Guinto wrote you to tell more about myself.

Well I'm from the Marshall Islands which is somewhere in the South Pacific Islands.  I think it is very close to the Philippines.  And I do speak Marshallese that my native language, but I apologize if you guys would not understand my grammer.

Anyway, things going really well with Elder Guinto and I, we are working with alot of people.  We have few amazing investigators two of them are getting baptize next month.  We are working hard to find more people and hopelly we'll find those we are prepared.

Elder Guinto is a great missionary I have ever work with.  He is teaching and showing me alot of stuff.  I'm proud of him and all thing he does.  We see the miracles and the blessings comes from being obedience.

I know that missionary work is the most important work we'll ever have.

We love you all and we remember you in our prayers in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Thank you so much for everything.

Love Elder Isaac Thomas


NOTE:  I did ask Kyle how long Elder Thomas had been out on his mission and he told me 17 or 18 months.

Short message from mom

Since we got to talk to Kyle on Christmas day there was not really an e-mail from him this week.  The e-mail he sent was very short and just answered some questions I had asked him so I'm not going to post it here.  We did have a great time talking with him on Christmas though.  He is doing really good and wanted us to be sure and send out a big thank you to everyone that sent him cards and gifts.  He especially wanted to thank Aunt Kelly for knowing exactly what he needed, and Adam for sending him all his favorites!  He got to go to the Manhattan Temple on Saturday with his ward and had a great time.  He forgot to bring his camera though so he didn't get any pictures.

New Pictures

Kyle sent some new pictures.  Quite a few of them are pretty blurry.  I think he is still getting used to the camera.  The first ones are taken while still at the MTC.  The remaining ones are from New Jersey.

Kyle's Mission Pics 2