Happy New Year and a phone call to family

I have to say that I had been anticipating Christmas Day ever since Harry left for his mission. I knew I would be able to talk to him. It was as wonderful as I knew it would be. It was so good to hear his voice.

I was very disappointed on Christmas Day to hear that he hadn't received my Christmas package to him yet. After all I had mailed it the week before Thanksgiving to ensure it's timely arrival. In my package I had made a photo album and each one of us had hand written a letter. Also, we enclosed an ipod full of video from the family. I was so excited to receive Harry's email today that he did received my package. Whew! Better late than never. (I knew that never was a possibility due to the high theft rate of packages there)

So....on to this weeks letter..........


Hey Everybody!!!

I got the package today!!!! Woo hoo!!! What a huge surprise, thank you, thank
you so much!!! Everything was awesome. The snuggie, the pictures, the pocket
knife, and yes the ipod made it here safetly. Thank you so much, I am so
excited! I will take a picture with the snuggie at my office desk for you guys.

The phone call was awesome wasn´t it? I don´t know it felt so short, but it was
so nice to hear all of your voices. Jake is sounding more normal, but Grant is
sounding more like Jake... well he is mr. puberty.

Christmas was really nice, it was weird without family, and it was extremely
hot. I only have one more to go! Time is flying right on by.

I forgot to tell you guys about my companion. I think I am going to go crazy
this transfer. He is an exact brazilian version of ´but daddy the top came off
´from smokey and the bandit. He is from the middle of nowhere, and he lived on a
farm. He is sooo slow! I don´t know what I am going to do with him, I am used to
doing a lot of things at the same time, but he gets overloaded, and stops. And
the way he does everything is so backward. Things will be interesting, at least
I am in the office where I can talk with other elders...

So remember Jake about the family that I helped out with drugs that I told you
about? Well I received some bad news... Edney loves the missionaries, I don´t
know why, but he was especially fond of me, and it broke his heart when I left.
Christmas Eve, he gave into temptation and he went and used drugs. He overdosed
and almost died. But that´s not the worst part, right now he is suffering from
Amnesia, and he can´t remember his family, his work, or anything. The only thing
that he can remember is that his wife is his girlfriend, and that he had two
really good friends who always wore white shirts, and ties. He can only remember
my comp´s name and my name. He has already ´found´my comp because he is still in
the area. But he is looking for me. I called my comp and he said that Edney
keeps on saying, where is my friend, where is Kenning? We were best buds, we
played soccer together, where is he, only he can help me out now. Edney has a
picture of me and he keeps on pointing at it and says, this is Kenning, I need
to find him, I miss him. So I don´t know what I am going to do, I am going to
ask President to see if I would be able to return to my old area for a night,
maybe my return would shock him out of amnesia. Hopefully everything will go
well.

Well I got to go! Love you all so much!!! Thank you so much for everything! I
miss you guys!!!

Love,
Elder Kenning

p.s. - dad, you are so WEIRD with your pictures. It´s pretty awesome, I would
have to say.