BAPTISM #3

Dear Family,

John was baptized on Saturday! Yippy!! It was so great! There were a ton of investigators there to watch because they are all planning on getting baptized in January. The elders are planning on having about 8 people getting baptized next month! So exciting! We brought another soul unto Christ! He can now work on getting sealed to his wife next year! He was just glowing on Saturday and Sunday. We had to go see him today as well and he was still grinning from ear to ear. I just love it!

Christmas was a lot of fun. We went over to the Gabrish family's house (same family that we saw on thanksgiving) and had Christmas dinner over there. We all played basketball in their in door gym and had lots of fun. Sister Howard and I were pretty awesome! We hardly ever missed a basket! on Christmas eve and Christmas day, all 6 of us missionaries were invited to the same members homes for all meals. So we all had tons of fun. 

I have been sick for the past few days and made Sister Howard go nuts because all I have done is sleep. Everyone is getting sick here! Its awful! I'm finally better today though. Everyone keeps giving me vitamin C stuff because I keep getting colds. I think it is because we are always going and being outside a lot. 

President and Sister Wirthlin told me early Happy Birthday in an email today! It was so sweet! They told me that I will be 7305 days old! I am going to be 2 decades! Crazy! 

I went on exchanges this week. One of my Sister Training Leaders is a greenie. I went to her area and her companion came to mine and worked with Sister Howard for the day. It was interesting and a great learning experience. I taught her how to talk to random people off the street and gave some ideas of how to work with her area book more effectively. It was fun. Including my 24 hour exchanges, I've served in Lake Placid, Hamilton, Horseheads, and Corning. It's pretty cool. I hope to see so much more of my mission in these next 9 months. My next transfer will be January 21st

The church is true! I Love you!

 Love, 

Sister Keller

FOLLOW A PROMPTING

Dear Family, 
Are you as excited for Christmas as I am?!?!  I don't think so! I am so pumped!! Sister Howard and I are so excited for this week. We made it packed with people to see and places to go to bring the spirit of Christ into everyone's home this Christmas season. I am going caroling on Tuesday evening to some investigators and Less Active members homes with the Elders and a couple members in our ward. On Wednesday I have 2 meal appointments with members and then going to a different religious Christmas celebration.  A member of the ward was invited and is bringing all 6 of us missionaries to the event. On Thursday I will be opening presents early in the morning and then off to 3 meal appointments through out the day. I will be Skyping you at 3:00 my time!!!  Friday I am going on a normal exchange for 24 hours. I will go to Corning with another sister and my companion will stay here in Horseheads. I miss those! So I am excited for that! Saturday John is getting baptized!!! YAY!!!! He is so ready too. We have been able to feel the spirit so strong at our lessons with him these past 3 weeks. We are very glad that we put off his first baptismal date, because he has gained so much more of a testimony than what he had before. It is also a very sweet Christmas gift to his wife. She's been waiting for this day for years! This week is going to be awesome!!!!

Shout out to the Sundance Ward, Thanks for all of the letters you sent me!!! And thanks to my little sunbeam class! I got your sweet letters too! 

On Sunday we were in second hour of church and talking about how we have seen Christ in our lives and sharing experiences from Christmas' in the past. Well there was this one woman, her name is Sister B. She wanted to share an experience that she had the other day. She said that, "the sister missionaries helped her this week so much and they had no idea they even did it". This was on Thursday. Sister Howard and I felt as though we should go outside and walk up and down the streets near our apartment and talk with as many people as we could. Praying that we could spread a little cheer around town. We even made cards with candy canes to give to people as they walked by. (it was freezing out so we had to knock on doors to give them away. No one would be out walking on the side walk in that weather... Except missionaries) Along the way, we would wave to every single car that drove by and smiled really big in hopes that they would wave back. We got EVERYONE to wave back! Well, we had no idea, but Sister B. was sitting inside a McDonalds looking out the window and feeling really down from a hard experience that she had gone through. She then spotted us walking down the road and started sobbing as she saw how we waved to absolute strangers just as Christ would. It was then during class on Sunday that we had seen our prayer answered. We did help someone feel the love of Christ that day and bring joy again into their life. FOLLOW A PROMPTING! Even if it makes you go out of your way into the cold! 

I am so thankful for our Zone Conference on Tuesday. I really felt the spirit, and I took away so much from it. I was called to share my testimony of our Heavenly Father, because I have come to really know Him. I am so thankful for the constant reminder that Heavenly Father loves me and is watching over me. I reread my Patriarchal Blessing and that is where I came to truly know that He knows exactly who I am. I know that all those who put that conference together were really inspired to know what to do, because we all truly needed it. I know that in the past couple weeks I've had a rough time, but I KNOW that it was the Lord teaching me how to see the good in hard situations. 

I had the most amazing personal study this morning. I did a Preach My Gospel "personal study" in the Christ Like Attribute section. I read from Mosiah and Alma to think about how the sons of Mosiah wanted to teach the Lamanites. 
Alma 17 
10: "And it came to pass that the Lord did visit them with his Spirit, and said unto them: Be comforted. And they were comforted". 
11: "And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls". 
The Lord says that we need to be patient in our afflictions, because we will have many of them. But, in doing so, we will be able to be that example that will draw others closer to Christ. Now, my favorite part of my study was when I read through Alma 26: 27-37. These missionaries went through the same things that we all face throughout our missions. They felt a little depressed, but were still comforted by the help of God, and kept going. They taught in houses, in streets, on hills, in synagogues, and all while being mocked and spit upon. But they still found joy in finding just one soul. They found joy by looking at the fruits of their labors. 

In the 9 months I have been out, I have seen the fruits of my labors. I referred to the quote by President Hinckley "Many of you think you are failures. You feel you cannot do well, that with all of your effort it is not sufficient. We all worry about our performance. We all wish we could do better. But unfortunately we do not realize, we do not often see the results that come of what we do". I have seen so many good things happen on my mission so far. I am so thankful for how much I am learning as well.

I have a VERY powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. I KNOW that it is true. So is the church.

-Love,
Sister Keller

THE CHURCH IS TRUE

Dear Family, 

I am so grateful to have the gospel in my life. We have the truth. We know God's plan, and we know what we can become. It is simple, yet so much to take in. It is the best thing we could ever hope to have in this life because it carries on through the next life and on for eternity. I went to a different church's Christmas celebration to represent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and it made me so grateful to be a member of our church knowing how much God has in store for us through His Gospel. I just want to work that much harder now to proclaim this gospel to all of upstate New York!!! I'll just stick with Horseheads for now and work my way around though.  The church is true

We had a lesson with a man that the ward knows as "grumpy 'ol Mike"  He really is grumpy!  But we finally got him to open up to us as to why he doesn't want to come to church and get baptized. It's a long story, but we know where to go from here now. It will take a very long time, but the Lord knows when the time is right. John is doing pretty good still. His new date is set for December 27th.  The church is true

Want to know something crazy?? Remember that one guy I told you about that wanted to hit us with a broom? Well, his grandson ( the guy we were trying to find in first place) texted us the other day!!! He wants to meet up again sometime! It's been a couple days since our last contact with him, but I am hopeful that something will happen.  The church is true

We really had very spirit felt lessons with less active members this past week. I have come to see how much I love to feel the sweet spirit. Especially when I have a hard time or a rough day. The Lord makes up for it. Times like those, almost make you forget about the bad stuff. I guess that is how I have seen my mission as such a wonderful experience. I can hardly remember the rough times. I still cringe when I hear about breaking teeth though......   The church is true

Christmas update! I got your great big package this week! I cant wait to open my presents! Mom.. I shook a couple presents... and then remembered that you told me not to. I can't tell what anything is anyway. I also got the Robinson's package today! They let me open something everyday until Christmas. I still don't know what time I will be calling, but I do know that it will be sometime after 1 my time. I'm hoping to call somewhere between 3 and 3:30 my time, but I don't know yet. Just make sure you are all together anytime after 11 I guess. I will have a final update next monday to let you all know. I want you all to come ready to ask me a bunch of questions!!!!! Let's use our time to the fullest! So start making your list! The church is true

I love you all!!! I cant wait another 10 days!!!!! 

Love, Sister Keller

GLAD TIDINGS

Dear Family,

You guessed it! I get to stay and celebrate Christmas and my birthday right here in Horseheads, NY!! YAY!!!!!!!! I am so excited!!! We have members feeding us every meal both Christmas Eve, and Christmas day! They also coordinated to have all six missionaries at the same houses. So we will just be hangin with the elders all day. I also know that I will be calling for 30 min, and then skyping for 30 min again just like mother's day. But I dont know what time, or where I will be for that yet. I am not sure if it has to be at a members house, or if I could use the laptop at the church. I find out soon.

Things got kind of hard this past week. We had a little bit of a set back.  Sister Howard and I were supposed to have a baptism this past Saturday... Things didn't go quite the way we were hoping. Our investigator didnt pass his interview with our district leader. He is worthy for it, but there was just a very strong feeling that he was not ready to be baptized. We came to see that he needs to gain a stronger testimony first before he makes the decision to be baptized. We just know that if we give him a little bit more time, he will come to want this baptism for himself and it will mean a lot more for him. He will know WHY he is doing it. It's not just another baptism to join another religion. It is a saving ordinance that will lead him to eternal life and exaltation! It's kind of a big deal! We also lost a couple more investigators.

We have just had the most difficult time trying to get in contact with anyone! We haven't been successful with finding new investigators. Our teaching pool just went down to 2 people. To top it all off, we were going to the Christmas Devotional at the church and found the elders rubbing it in that they had investigators taking up a 3rd of the congregation pews. I just went down hill last night.. had a little bit of a melt down and felt as though I was failing. I felt I wasn't doing good enough or that I wasn't working hard enough and that is why we haven't been blessed to be trusted with more of God's children. But was it really so? Am I sitting at home all day? No. Are we knocking on doors everywhere we go in between appointments? Yes. Are we TRYING? YES! These points were inspired by my companion to help me realize that we are not failing. We are trying and that is what counts. We are doing great things with less active memebrs right now. We are building trust and friendship, and excitment to COME BACK to church! We also received lists and lists of more people that need to see us. Part member families especially! So we've got lots of work to do! We also received a phone call from one of the elders wanting to appoligize for rubbing it in our face that they had so many investigators at the devotional. "I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men." Doctrine and Covenants 64:10

Dont worry though! No homesickness, no more saddness, just glad tidings of great joy! The church is true!

Love, Sister Keller

TIME FLIES...

Dear Family,

This week feels like it just flew by! I can hardly remember what I did 10 minutes ago! Oh wait, I went to Target.. :) I felt like I needed to participate in Black Friday shopping on Monday, so I did :) It was fun. We had a pretty good Thanksgiving. It was at the Gabrish's home. They live in the middle of no where, and so we had a "country dinner" as they called it. They didn't have a stove, so most everything was dutch oven. It was pretty good! We had fun. Sister Gabrish was the one who text the picture of us to you. She sent one to my companion's mom as well. We stayed for a little bit to see your response. That was so awesome!!!! President gives us permission to be at member's homes longer than an hour on holidays. So we stayed for about 2. Something I thought was funny is that I have been told by tons of people that I have a cool accent! I guess us Idahoans have an accent that only the east coast can recognize.

We were very busy on Friday and Saturday! I love busy days! We really relied on the Lord to plan out our days the night before, and everything worked out! Nothing was dropped, or missed. We saw everyone we sought out to see, and more!  On Sunday we had 3 dinner appointments within 3 hours. I was so full!! I haven't felt hungry in days! Members feed us like mad! I feel so blessed though!

One of the members had a boy just come home from serving his mission. He was in Utah. We got to go to his home coming open house. He seemed so happy to be home! 2 years seems like such a long time!! But I can definitely say that it goes by a lot faster when you are the one serving! I am almost half way finished, and I feel like I just started still! But then again, I also feel like I have come such a long way, and have grown so much! I have learned things on my mission that I don't think I could have or would have ever learned on my own. I used to think I had to rely on the spirit. That I had to be obedient. And that I needed to be here. But now, I know that I NEED to rely on the spirit. I WANT to be obedient, and the LORD needs me here. That's because the church is true.

Love,

Sister Keller

Oh, I had the hardest time staying awake this morning during my personal study! I was about to say my prayer. Dear Heavenly Father... zzzzzzzzzz...... Then Sister Howard took a picture of me. I repented for falling asleep during a prayer :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Dear Family, 

This week was a pretty awesome week. Especially from all of the spiritual experiences we've had! So we have started teaching the members the missionary lessons. We have noticed that they too can always use our visits as ways to strengthen their testimonies. At dinner appointments we have been doing a quick spiritual thought. Now, we go over to their homes not always with the intent to eat, but to have a real lesson. Sometimes we just show up like we would at a normal investigators house for 15 to 20 minutes. We have started teaching them the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and a lesson on the Book of Mormon. Then committing them to give away a pass a long copy of the Book of Mormon that we bring for them. We invite them to write their testimony inside, think of their favorite story, and think about how important it is to them. That way they will know what to say to their friends when they feel impressed to give it. We have really strengthened our relationships with them because of this! It is great because they don't know us very well, and now we have their trust! 

Our teaching pool isn't very big right now, but we still have pretty solid investigators! I am so excited to keep seeing them and bring them closer to Christ! But because we don't have very many investigators we have been doing a lot of work with the less active members. This ward is huge, and could be even bigger if all of the members actually showed up once in a while. So we have been visiting with some very sweet ladies regularly, as well with stopping by some other families who haven't been visited in a while. 

This past Wednesday we got to hear from a general authority!!! His name was Elder Katcher and he is a member of the Seventy. He taught us how to work with ward leadership and how to use the Book of Mormon more powerfully in our teaching. I learned so much from him that day. I also learned how familiar I am with the Book of Mormon! You could ask me anything and I could relate it to a principle from a Book of Mormon story! This wasn't even the best part of the meeting... So there are 6 zones in my mission. Potsdam, Albany x2, Owego, Utica, and Syracuse. Elder Katcher visited each zone. He was inspired to choose 5 missionaries from each zone before he even got here to have a personal 1 on 1 interview with him. Guess who was one of those 5 he chose in the Owego Zone?!?!?! ME!!! It was so awesome!! He asked me a couple questions and then asked how he could help me in any way. I know that he received revelation from God to answer my questions, because he helped me in so many ways!!! I feel pretty awesome.

Sister Howard gets to go to return and report tomorrow! We leave tonight, and get to stay the night in the mission home again. I love training! I love going to return and report. I have been able to go 3 times now! I will be driving the zone leaders minivan to Utica, because I have to pick up 4 more sisters along the way. So excited!

Robinsons sent me another package! loved it! THANK YOU.

I hope you all have an awesome Thanksgiving!!! I will be celebrating at a members house! They seem awesome. They have a big family! Happy Turkey day! Dont forget to tell the Lord all of the things you are thankful for! Make sure you have plenty of time, because it should take a while!
Love you! The Church is True!

Love, 

Sister Keller

BASEBALLS

Hello dearest Family!

This will be kind of fast, because I don't have very much time. So, this past week Sister Howard and I were dropped by a couple investigators that we inherited from the previous missionaries. We never met them, but they told us they didn't want to meet anymore. So that was a little sad. But we still have solid investigators getting ready to be baptized soon! Their date will probably be the first week of December now though because they got sick and didn't come to church on Sunday. Pretty lame because we gave some awesome talks during Sacrament meeting! We were called late Friday night and they needed someone to talk on Sunday, so we were happy to fill in. We were told by so many people that we helped them feel the spirit.

On Tuesday, Sister Howard and I had a pretty scary day. We were out and about looking for a man that was taught a long time ago. His record said that he was dropped because he had a scary experience of seeing evil spirits and started drinking again, then lost contact. So we decided to go looking for him and try to rekindle the testimony that he once had. We found his house and this old man comes up to us with a broom in his hands. He was holding it in a way that looked like he was going to hit a baseball with it. (I think we were the baseballs). He asked us what we were doing there and we introduced ourselves. He asked us if the man we were looking for owed us any money and we said no. Then he told us to "get in our car and hit the road". I hope he was just having a bad day, because he was a bit on the "cranky old man" side. President Wirthlin always tells us that if we wake up and are having a bad day, to get back in bed and get out on the other side and say that it is going to be a great day! It works :)

We got to attend a baptism on Saturday for a young woman that the Elders had taught. That was super awesome! I love their face as they come up out of the water. You see them take their first breath as a whole new person! A follower of Jesus Christ! She seemed so happy.

I saw you all had a little bit of snow! I giggled a little bit because it was about 50 here on that day :) It snowed here this morning and it was really pretty! VERY cold though. Humidity chills you right to the bone! It hurts! But I am very excited for Christmas time. Every one says that it is the best time of their missions because there is so much we can do for others. It is a great time to talk about Jesus Christ too. I am looking forward to having a snow shovel ready in our trunk so that we can stop and help people through out the day!

Mom, I really don't have anything bad to say about this area. I am having such an awesome time every single day! I also got all of the packages you mentioned. Yours was so fun, and your friends was yummy!

"My own testimony grew as I learned about Heavenly Father and the Savior from the teachings and testimony of my parents, teachers, the scriptures—which I read diligently—and especially the Holy Ghost. As I exercised faith and obeyed the commandments, the Holy Ghost testified that what I was learning was true. This is how I came to know for myself." 
-Robert D. Hales 

This is so true for me as well! I have especially gained my testimony from the influences of you, Mom and Dad. Every time I am asked to remember the moment I knew the church was true I always think back to a moment when I was with the both of you. You have both really set such a huge example for me, and I am very grateful for all that you taught me!!

I love you all!

 Love, Sister Keller
The Church Is True