Exchanges, Seminary & Extreme Couponing!!

Dear Family & Friends,

This week went by quickly. We went on exchanges twice this week, since Elder Thornton is the District Leader. My first exchange was with Elder Hunsicker. Elder Hunsicker is training Elder Lowe and will be going home at the end of next Transfer. Elder Lowe and I were in the same boat with trainers... anyway, most of our exchange was made up of biking... A LOT! We biked up hills, coasted down hills, out ran small dogs looking for something to chase. All part of a fun time! At the end of the day my legs felt like steel and I was exhausted. The next day we exchanged back. on Thursday we had another exchange. I stayed in Thomson with Elder Wells whose area is Grovetown, GA. We had a good exchange and we visited Becky and others.

That morning we had a chance to teach a Seminary class. The class is held at the church and we taught the Juniors and Seniors, which is different than Idaho Seminary. We were in Genesis chapters 20 and 21. The story was about Abraham and Sarah going to the kingdom of Abimelech. Abimelech takes Sarah, since he thought she was only a sister to Abraham. Close enough, though, Sarah is actually the daughter of Abraham's brother. Weird stuff in the Old Testament. As the story goes, the Lord warns Abimelech that he will be struck down unless he returns Sarah to Abraham. Abimelech heeds the counsel and returns her to her husband. The focus of the lesson was that the Lord will send us warnings to help keep us safe from spiritual and temporal harm. As President Packer said that each member of the Church will always be warned of danger by the Holy Ghost. It us up to us to heed the guidance of the Holy Ghost. 

Augusta Zone Conference September 11th, 2015

This weekend was the Augusta Stake Conference. It went well and I learned how to have a meaningful Sabbath Day. Other talks were on Religious Liberty as well as family unity. On Saturday we went and did service for the food pantry in Appling. We were there for 2 hours and we loved being able to help out those who help hundreds of families. After that we went straight to a wedding of two members in the ward. It was a short, simple wedding. We got back to the apartment and I was not feeling well. After my little snooze we went to Stake Conference. 

Yesterday we taught Austin, who was recently baptized a couple weeks ago. His mom made us cookies and apple cinnamon bread and also joined in on the discussion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After the lesson she said that she is an extreme couponer and buys a lot of bulk. She then said for us to take some of her stuff home with us. We couldn't stop thanking her as she sent us off with laundry detergent, shampoo, body wash, shaving supplies, toothpaste, toilet paper, and paper towels. We are set with that stuff for several months. All we need to buy next month is food when we get more money. 

It was a good week overall. Transfer calls are next Saturday and I will let you know if I stay or go. Most likely I'll stay. Have a great week and I hope to hear from you soon! Love you all!

Your son, 

Elder Alexander Kestner