BAPTISMS #5 AND #6

Dear Family,

Two more people just received a saving ordinance on Saturday! Birdy and Amelie's baptisms went so well!!!!! It was such a sweet experience for everyone to see. They were so happy and there was so much light in their eyes. For them to do this together as husband and wife makes it that much more special for their family. They can now as equal companions work together and establish their home where the Holy Spirit can be. They were absolutely glowing after they received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday. The Binghamton ward is so lucky to have such sweet new members join their family.

Preparing for this baptism was pretty insane. I was sick most of the day, and the baptisimal font took 3 hours to fill. Luckily we can't leave the church while it is filling so we were able to stay and chill for those 3 hours... Sort of... We were also fanning out the whole building because a companion of mine burnt some popcorn. It was so smelly! It's gone now though, don't worry :) 
Paul gave us quite a scare this week! His baptism was scheduled for May 29th. He had a drink the other day, and said that he needed to drop his date and probably everything else. We assumed that maybe he just felt ashamed for drinking and needing to change his date. I can understand how frustrating that would be, and how bad he must have felt. So we handled it with love and explained that it is okay to make mistakes. He will need to change his date but that was alright. He wouldn't want to get baptized with that kind of guilt hanging over him, that's why we go a whole month of following the word of wisdom before baptism. He might still be a little shaken up, but he has a new date now for July. It was truly a miracle to give him a new date. Normally he would have ended it all, but we know that he has a testimony. Even if it is the faith of a mustard seed, it is still there. And if that is all you have, you can still move mountains!

Dad, your email this week was powerful! And like you said, "don't take no for an answer." We all sort of did that this week. We went over to Danielle's home for a lesson to read from the Book of Mormon, and her friend was there. We never met her before, but she has seen missionaries in the past. We invited her to read with us and she gladly accepted. Out of all the places, we read Mosiah 18. That chapter is all about baptism. We had such a good conversation about how Alma was teaching his people and then baptized over 400 people. If that many people at once were baptized then something Alma was teaching them was good. Danielle's friend liked everything we had shared, and we invited her to be baptized. She said that she goes to church, but hasn't ever been baptized before. She was a little hesitant, but then Danielle jumped in as well and was able to show by example everything that she has been blessed with since learning with us. She eventually committed to sit in on the discussions. I don't know what will come about of it in the future, but I do know that the spirit was very strong that day. 

Speaking of the spirit, we had an amazing time yesterday while we were out tracting. Sunday's usually don't have very many appointments set, so we spend lots of time talking to people. We started on a street near our house, and met a few people who weren't interested. It was hot, and we had a ways to walk back to our car. We found a cute house that seemed nice to go knock on their door, and a sweet woman answers and says "Come on in! Let me get you some water!" She ended up being a member but we had no idea she lived there because she is from a different ward. Her husband is in their bishopric. It was a nice visit, and the Lord blessed us with a kind family to offer us water on a hot day. 

After that, we drove a long ways away to look for a former investigator and met some interesting people. The first man we came to came out and said that we parked on his lawn. Then he didn't want us to leave because he wanted to know what we were all about. As we continued talking, we realized that he was very anti towards the church. He wanted to invite us inside to "chat" but we knew that  that would just be putting him on his thrown to bash. So we said no thanks and continued to bare testimony outside. He kept wanting to share his "opinion" about Joseph Smith and some other things and every time he would, he would get distracted by something and lose his thought. Just goes to show he was not preaching by the spirit! After him, we walked all the way down to the end of the road and met a very sweet woman. She had no interest in taking lessons or anything, but she did want to take a walk with us. So we walked for about 45 minutes just talking about why a few 20 year old girls were so far away from home to walk up and down the streets of sketchy places. Why wouldn't we, with the message that we have to share with the world!? She really came to like us and gave us some fresh eggs to take home from her chickens. The spirit was so strong with us yesterday!!! The church is true!! By the way, did you know that I live right across the street from the Susquehanna River? 

Love, Sister Keller

SEEING THE BLESSINGS

Hey Family!

So since I just barely spoke with you, I don't have too much to say this week. I told you mostly everything that has been going on. Everything is pretty great still! 

With our crazy transfers yesterday, President and Sister Wirthlin came and picked up Sister Bladh to take her to Bennington, Vermont, where she switched places with Sister Yancey. He then brought her here with Sister Bae and I at around 8 last night. They were waiting for us at our apartment when we got back from Skyping y'all. I was pretty happy to see Sister Yancey. She has become a pretty good friend. She told me a little bit about her past few transfers, and that poor sister has been through a lot! I hope she will be able to be happy here and feel at peace. I certainly have! I have had the most fun here then I have in all of my areas. 

I can definitely say I don't feel trunky! In the past when I called home, I always felt sad afterwards that I couldn't see you longer. I would sometimes get homesick after it too. Especially that first mother's day. But today was different. I loved seeing you all so much and talking with you all was so great!! But I don't feel sad this time! I have been working hard, and I am seeing the blessings come as we have done so. Look at how many of these wonderful people we have been teaching have come to know how much Heavenly Father loves them! They WANT to get baptized. They KNOW that it is what He wants, and they are willing to change because they know it will be such a huge blessing to them. This isn't about numbers. This is about bringing our brothers and sisters home to our beloved Savior and Father in heaven. The church is true!

I love you all so much! Seeing you this last time just gave me even more of a desire to work hard before I come home. 

Love, Sister Keller

A GREAT WEEK

Dearest Family,

Guess what! This week was such a great week!!!!!! I am just in awe with all of the blessings we have been receiving, that I just don't know what to do with myself! They are about the people we have been teaching. So, we have 4 people who are preparing for baptism right now. It would have been 5, but they will need a little bit more time. We had been praying about that date, and it hasn't ever seemed right. She is not ready for baptism. This is such an important event, and we don't want her to get baptized and then go inactive a few months later. The four people who are up for date are Birdie and Amelie, for May 16th, Adrienne now has a date for June 6th. I told you about her experience last week, and how she told us that she wanted to get baptized. She will probably be going to Oregon with the member who referred her to us and get baptized there. It will probably be the same type of deal we had when Trent was baptized in California. Our last person with a date is really a miracle! Paul for a while seemed not too interested in getting baptized. He even dropped the sisters for a little bit and they weren't teaching him for a while. But his dad converted to the church and completely changed his life around. He really likes what kind of a person he has turned out to be, so he contacted the missionaries again. There was a big fear of rejection from the rest of his family if he were to get baptized so he put it off for a really long time. But I think that the Lord gave him confidence and a sense of peace in knowing that they will still love him no matter what. That being said, he surprised us one day during a lesson saying that he feels like he is ready to get baptized!!! His day is May 29th.

We had a pretty fun district activity today. We went to the Zoo. Most of the animals were out and visible, but also asleep. 

Ready for the main event??? The moment you have all been waiting for?!?!?! I will be calling home on Sunday at 7:00pm MY TIME. I am SOOOOOOO excited!!!!!!! Start writing down all of your questions, and dont forget them this time!!! Love you

Love, Sister Keller    

P.S. the church is true

DOING GREAT

Dear Family,

OK Mom, I will tell you a little bit about my area.  It is so cool! Especially at night. We live on a hill, and everybody built homes and buildings on other hills, so the whole town looks lit up at night. I live on the second floor of our complex, and we have a deck in the back which is pretty cool. It will be nice to study out there when the stinken weather gets better! We live next door to a college campus so there are tons of college students in our apartment complex. Most of them are Asian. Sister Bae has been able to communicate with them a lot because some are from Korea. We live about 3 minutes from the church and walk there a lot. The members don't feed us very much, but they have a big box in the relief society room which they fill up every Sunday for all 3 sets of missionaries. We hardly need to go grocery shopping. We've got lots of fun places to go shopping. There is a mall, but I haven't been to it yet. I will try to take more pictures of this town. It's pretty cute.

So I never realized how difficult English is! I talk with "slang" in my accent, and never realized it. Like, "Do you wanna go to the store?" Sister Bae notices the difference between "wanna" and "want to" and can't figure out which one is correct. Everybody does it, but it is not correct grammar! She knows more about grammar, or is more familiar with it right now than I am! She's also picked up what the slang word for "all right" is... "ight"  I asked her if she understands everything we say when we say prayers together. She doesn't retain every word, but she still feels the spirit. So now, I am going to start working on fully pronouncing each word and speaking slower so she can understand our prayers.

We had an amazing lesson with Adrienne this week. She told us that she never thought it would work, but that she has been saying kneeling prayers every morning and has actually seen a difference in her life! She feels as though she can't function right in her day unless she says a prayer first. This was all over the phone for a lesson, and before we could hang up she then told us that because of the difference God has made in her life, she wants to get baptized!! I am so excited for her. The Book of Mormon has done so much for her!! We don't have a date planned yet, but that will come soon! She finishes school in June. Birdie and Amelie are still looking good for May 16th. Danielle as well for the 23rd. Er'body is just doing great!

I had a crazy long exchange this week with my sister training leader. It lasted like 4 days! It was fun though. She taught me that compliments can do powerful things for someone. It can really help someone feel happy. So compliment someone this week.  Tell me about it next Monday.  My other sister training leader was a hair stylist before she came out and she cut my hair today. Nothing drastic, but it's cute. 

Ight then, I think that's all the time I have today! The church is true!
Love, Sister Keller

GIFT OF TONGUES

Dear Family,

It is so crazy to see how different this trio has been since the last one I had. Training our third companion puts a difference in it, and I think having a language barrier makes a pretty big difference too!!! So I'm sure you have some questions about my new temple square companion. First of all, she has only been in America for about 5 months now. She is learning English of course, and was in temple square for her first 2 transfers to be with her trainers and then was assigned to come to New York. Temple Square sisters have a pretty cool mission. Their main mission is to serve right there in Salt Lake City at temple square for their whole mission, but they also have an opportunity to serve anywhere in the US for 2 transfers. She was called to the NYUM. Her name is Sister Bae. (pronounced bay) She is 23 and is from South Korea! She is such a fun person to talk to!! So since we get her for the next 6 weeks, I'm going to see how much Korean I can learn. We do an hour of language study with her every day. She is doing pretty good for only speaking English for a few months! I have definitely seen how the Gift of Tongues works!!! I know how much she struggles with speaking clearly, but I have seen her testify to people. The spirit is so strong when she speaks and people can understand her! One thing she said that stuck with me was that we often can forget about our Savior. We sometimes forget to remember Him during difficult times. But Jesus Christ has every single one of us engraved on the palm of His hand. He could never forget to remember us.

Transfers were pretty fun! I got to take a picture with all but 2 of my companions that I have served with. I also love to hear the testimonies of the departing missionaries. They all share what they have learned on their missions, cry, and tell how great serving the Lord is. I know that all of what they said is totally true!

So we currently have 3 people lined up for baptism this May! Birdie and his wife Amelie are scheduled for the 16th, and Danielle is the 23rd. We are so excited for these awesome people!!!! They all have a pretty strong testimony of the gospel. Birdie and Amelie especially. They have been willing to change so much, and do anything to live more in harmony with what Heavenly Father has asked of us. The word of wisdom is usually a hard one for people to change and I need to be thoroughly familiar with my scriptures so that I can show them using the word of God that this is truly revelation from Him. But those two were willing to quit drinking coffee because they knew that it was right! Teaching is so much fun. I have loved teaching and testifying my whole mission! I know that I have a very strong testimony of this gospel because I share it with everyone.

I had to eat some scary food this week! It wasn't nasty to everyone else, because they like that sort of stuff under the sea, but normally I can't swallow things like that! The smell was almost as scary as the taste! I don't know how I got it down.. I guess there is more than one way to use the gift of tongues!  The church is true!

Love, Sister Keller

TRANSFER TIME

Dear family,

I've got big news for transfers!! I am staying in Vestal!! And so is Sister Bladh!! But guess what else?!?! We are both training together!!! The new arrivals group only had one sister come out here, and she is from the Salt Lake Temple Square mission! So we will be in a trio, training a Temple Square sister. That means we will get to go to the mission home and pick her up bright and early tomorrow morning. We have to squeeze and shift things around in our apartment again. I just love trios. They are so much fun! 

So my first trainee, Sister Dahl, I heard is becoming a Sister Training Leader!! That is way cool, and then Sister Howard gets to white wash another area.  She's pretty good at that. I think it is pretty funny that she has to do that twice in a row haha. This transfer had a ton of changes. Almost everyone changed, or got a leadership calling.

As far as teaching goes, we had a crazy busy week!! Also, a very successful week. We got a surprise phone call from a set of sisters that are "traveling sisters" saying that they were coming and going to be in a trio with us for a couple days. That was on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Their calling is to go around the whole mission and just serve with random sets of sisters and train them on stuff. We had a really fun time. I don't know if that calling will be a permanent one that president keeps, but that was just theirs for this past transfer. We didn't even know there was such a thing until they called us. We were with Sister Barley for those three days.

We had 10 lessons this week! That is a lot for this area. Most of them were over the phone, and through Facebook. But a couple were  in person too. One of our investigators lives out of our area for the whole week and works, then comes home for the weekend. But she is the most dedicated person I have ever seen to read the Book of Mormon. She was a member referral, and just absolutely loves the spirit that the Book of Mormon brings. She texts us early in the morning saying "already up and reading!" She also reads with highlighters to take notes and stuff. We call her and read with her to answer questions. Seeing her come to love reading this much, has strengthened my testimony that the Book of Mormon can help anyone. Even if they aren't members. With our Chinese friends, they told us that they want to be baptized! They don't have a date yet, but they want to make it close or on the date of when they were either engaged or married. I can't remember which one they said. Then they told us that they want to be sealed in the temple around the same time next year!!!! So cool!!!

Well, I better get going now. Oh! I got my new ctr ring! it's pretty awesome. Jordy, I hope you had an AWESOME birthday :) I love you so much!!!! Hannah, I hope you had fun at prom!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The church is true
Love, Sister Keller

HAPPY EASTER

Dear Family,

This was an amazing Easter!! It was so great how it all worked out that we got to watch General Conference on the same day that we remember our beloved Savior's atoning sacrifice and resurrection. I loved conference so much! I prayed and pondered for a question that I could go in with, but I couldn't seem to think of one. So I changed my prayer, and just asked that the apostles and other general authorities would be inspired to know what to say to touch the hearts of all who would hear them. I knew that there were millions who were watching and listening both days. Well they certainly touched mine!! The theme of love and families is so dear to my heart and I felt the spirit so strongly as they spoke the words that God had them speak. The theme of following and remembering Jesus Christ was so powerful! 

On Saturday a member fed all of us in between sessions, but no one had us over for Sunday. It all worked out though. We struggled planning the night before knowing what to do that evening. We didn't want to call a family and just invite ourselves over. So we just prayed for a miracle. I received an answer to our companionship prayer that night of what we should do. We ended up being pretty busy with visiting a recent convert in the hospital and having a lesson online with one of our investigators. The member just had twins and was spending Easter in the hospital. So we shared an Easter message with her. Our online lesson was exciting! Our investigator is so involved with learning and trying to understand the Book of Mormon. She brought up some very good questions, and is more and more excited to read it everyday. There was no time for an Easter dinner! I hope your day was as fun as mine! I did get to have an Easter egg hunt though!! We did that today for a district activity.

I love how inspired we are each day as we visit with people! Another investigator of ours accepted the invitation to be baptized, because she loved what we testified of about eternal families. The words that came out of our mouths were completely by the spirit, and I honestly couldn't remember everything that I said! That is because they weren't my words. We also visited a member to read some of the Book of Mormon with and they asked us if we had been praying and fasting that day. We said no, but they asked because the scripture we had decided to read with them was apparently exactly what they had been needing to hear!! The spirit is so strong.

Just before the Saturday morning session, we went out tracting to try and hand out as much of our Easter pass along cards as we could and share Helives.mormon.org. I kept track of every door we came to and at every single door when it was my turn to talk, they seemed to be mad and or totally reject us... Then when it was Sister Bladh's turn to talk, they were happy and willing to watch the video! I was just thinking Come on! My next one better be good. But with out fail, every time, it was the same loud door shut in our faces. I just wanted to skip the rest of the houses and go back to the car and do something else. That would be the easy thing to do... But then I realized that all of those people who Sister Bladh would have been able to talk to wouldn't get to be invited to watch the video if we left the street. So we stayed, and what do you know? The next person I talked with was nice. God gives us challenges for a reason. I learned from conference that our commitment to the gospel is supposed to be difficult and judged, and awkward at times, but that is where FAITH comes in! We must endure to the end if we are to make it to eternal happiness.  

The church is true! love you!
~ Love, Sister Keller