Bad news, Good news

Dear Friends and Family,

This is a brief update with the hopes that Kelly will slow down enough to
write everyone about his experience, but we've had so many people asking I
felt we needed to respond on maybe a larger scale and request the prayers
and faith of everyone that has followed him for the last 2 years.

Last week we received a call from Kelly's mission president telling us that
Kelly was coming home the next day (Thursday) to have surgery. He had been
having some problems for a few months and they finally figured out what was
going on, he has testicular cancer.

He goes into surgery this morning at 10:00 a.m. to have it removed and to
find out what type of cancer it is and if it has metastasized. The scans
at this point do not appear to show it has spread, however the doctor was
somewhat cautious sharing that because not everything shows up in the scans
and the tumor is very large.

The good news is he's home, in good spirits and courageously ready to face
this challenge, yet is prepared to accept the Lord's will. There is a very
good prognosis for this kind of cancer and we have no reason to doubt that
he will come through it.

We would like join him in expressing our appreciation to all of you who
have written him, prayed for him and rejoiced with him in his service to the
Lord for these last two years.

God Bless you all,

Dave, Carol Ann, Kelly and family

Carol Ann Conrad, MS, LMHC, NCC

Certified Emotionally Focused Therapist

8045 W. Grandridge Blvd Ste A

Kennewick, WA 99336

http://www.carolannconrad.com

509-735-1221

FW: phone etc. info.

Dear Mom and Dad 02 Aug 2010

So, we just started writing our leaders and president on the computer
today and I will be taking pieces out of it and showing what all I write
about in them. So here's how I started my letter this week:

So, we found out this week from our ward mission leader that the ward
hasn't trusted the missionaries for a long time here because they feel like
the elders have baptized people who they thought weren't fully prepared.
Which I can see why, out of the past 24 months there have been six baptisms
here and out of all six, none are still active. Every baptism that the
elders have had here that weren't counted with these six, have all moved on
into other wards shortly after their baptisms. It's a really unique problem
because they have some of the best elders who have come through here, but I
can see that those elders did missionary work without the members and
neglected to pay heed to the members and their concerns. I feel like my time
will be spent correcting this challenge and the style of leadership in the
zone leader companionship to correct some other concerns in our zone.

Our only light of hope is the D. family. They have a date for the 28 of
August. This isn't a date that we are forcing, but a date that they are
fully looking forward to. Now, with the mentioned above challenge of the
ward's concern about converts, the ward is having an issue with this family
getting baptized. It kind of frustrates me because I see how the D.'s are at
teaching appointments and how sincere and intent they are in joining the
church, and yet the ward has concerns because Brother and Sister D. aren't
the most out going of people in church. It's sad that they can make a
judgement call like that. I even struggle with having to meet these people
and getting to know them and I am a missionary! I am just praying for the
D.'s to get a chance to prove themselves to this ward. I am also praying for
a chance to prove myself to this ward and show them how wrong they are
because they are the ones that need to be on board for missionary work to go
any where here.
You know where the problem is when the missionaries are baptizing and the
converts are going to different wards. The last baptism we had here,
Channing M. is his name, is so solid that he already has money saved up to
go on a mission in a year. The elders taught and baptized him, but he didn't
stay in the ward the elders serve in, he is going to the singles ward. Its
hard to explain over my email all that is going on that would have me make a
comment like this, but it is what I have observed. I'm not blaming the ward,
just being honest with what I observe. Now that I know more of the problem,
I can begin slowly solving it. My vision for this area is a tighter bond and
connection with ward leaders and members. We have been able to get some
trust back through dinner appointments and the members are talking about us,
in a good way; but we still have our work cut out for us. We have two great
chances this week to prove ourselves to the ward leadership. On Wednesday,
we have a lunch appointment with our bishop, then after that we are meeting
with our ward mission leader; two perfect time's to be supportive of what
these leaders want from us, and show our willingness to do it. I can't see
anyone being added to our investigator pool until we focus and begin working
on the ward trust issue. As we slowly gain the wards trust back we will see
people being added to our teaching pool.

This is fun, its testing me and helping me see what I really learned from
my mission.

I Love you family and thank you for all that you are doing for me!

Love,

Elder D Kelly Conrad

PS. I have packaged up my box and will be seeing today how much it till cost
to have it sent home. I will get back to you next week about how much and
see about sending it then. If its less then what is in my account right now
I will send it today. I will be on fro a few more minutes if you want to
respond back to this PS.

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service Elder Kelly Conrad

Dear Mom and Dad 26 July 2010

So the week was good, we had ZLC where we learned more about what the
church is going to be doing with these new changes in the missionary
calender and lessons. Its was very inspiring, and comforting. I thought that
I might be missing out on something leaving just as these things have come
out, but I am not, these new lessons aren't new, but are a way of teaching
missionaries how to teach people and not view them as objects, or
statistical numbers.

On Sunday we went and saw a part member family that we have been trying to
see this past week. It was pretty special how things worked out. The father
of the family, who is not the member, let us in. We talked with him and his
two sons about how their day went and started to get to know them. The
father brought up a concern that he has for his kids, which is that they
aren't interested in learning about God. He has a very limited set of
teaching skills that doesn't appeal to 10 and 13 years old's. So we told him
about the fun activities we have that can teach simple principles and he
agreed to have us come back to do a Family Home Evening. It was really neat.

Later on Sunday we went to visit a person who formerly investigated the
church. He was being taught 8 to 9 months ago and I met him while I was on
exchanges here with Elder Hancock. When we talked to him at his door he came
right out with what his concern was. We asked for some of his time and we
taught to his needs. He had questions about tithing and had some things
confused, thinking he would only have 30 dollars a month left because he
lives on a fixed income with being disabled. We got that straightened out,
there must have been some miscommunication somewhere. Anyways, we got him
back now. He is going to FHE tonight with the singles ward and is getting
back into church and institute.

I've got to go and change into my basketball cloths. I love you family!

love,

Elder D Kelly Conrad

PS, this is the picture of Jeremy, Elder Clinger, Channig, and me on the 24
of July

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s)
and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized
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