A letter from Kevin's new companion....What every mother wants to hear. :)

"Dear Friends and Family,

So everything is going pretty well here, I am soooooo happy!!!!!!! I was
transferred and have had several big changes. The first is that I am now a
Zone Leader, second, I am in Garanhuns (interior) and I am with Elder
Lowder, probably the coolest companion on earth!!!!!!! So Elder Lowder is
from California as well, and not just any part, he is from Concord
California and lives only about 25 minutes from my house, how weird and
cool!!!! Not only that but his father’s cousin is someone who I know and is
a good friend and was my childhood DARE officer, Officer Pearson (I am sorry
if I wrote that wrong, Portuguese is messing with my spelling so much).
Needless to say we are both happy and having an amazing time. We are Zone
Leaders for the Interior, which is huge and my favorite part is that we are
at high altitude which means IT IS STINKEN COLD HERE!!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!
It isn´t humid and the area actually looks like California, it is rolling
hills, our city is like a mix of Danville and in some parts Oakland, it is
so stinken awesome here. The weather is just like the weather in San Ramon
and the ward here is so wonderful. This is going to be such
an amazing transfer. I am just so excited to be cold! I LOVE IT HERE, I LOVE MY COMPANION; man the mission is so wonderful. Our Zone is fun and we will definitely have a good transfer. Man I am excited!

Mom-I love you, I hope all is going well for you. I am very happy. I feel
like I have finally received the companion that you and dad have always been
praying I would receive. We just get along so well, we are working our butts
off. We do everything we can to bring about the work of the Lord and we
don´t need to do check-ups on each other. We are both obedient, we both know
why we are here, and we both have a lot of experience as missionaries. Elder
Lowder has already served as Assistant to president and I am learning a lot
with him. It is so much fun here; I hope I stay here, with Elder Lowder for
a long time. I love it out here. It feels like a dream really, I am so
happy. I haven’t ever passed through a continues period of time with this
level of happiness in my entire mission. I hope this continues for the rest
of the transfer and mission. I really feel so happy and blessed. I know the
Lord loves me.

Dad-I love you so much. I hope all is going very well for you and mom. I am
doing really well, I love this work and my new calling. I am learning a lot
and Zone Leader is a really cool calling. Elder Lowder and I are having a
lot of fun out here in Garanhuns. We are working a lot to help motivate our zone to be the best in the mission. It is just going to be happiness combined with the Holy
Ghost and lots of miracles. My companion and I decided that we are tired of
stress and pressure so we are replacing all of that with lots of fun things.
Instead of using "scare tactics" of maybe Sister will do a surprise visit we
are replacing everything with a reward system and we will let people know
when we are going to do an inspection so they can clean everything and
prepare adequately to have a clean house. It will be great. Everything of
that sort, it will be awesome! No more stress, no more pressure, just the
Lords work, happiness, spirituality, and love. I am so happy to be leading a
zone with Elder Lowder, it is going to be so much fun."