NOT TRUNKY YET

Dear Family,

Oh. My. Goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe that transfer calls are this Saturday! Transfer 12 went by so fast. I wonder how 13 will be... Everyone thinks that I am staying because it will be my last one. I think that is very nice of them to say. It makes me feel like they really love me. I am not so sure if I will finish here though. I would love to serve in one more area. I have been really praying to know how I can make my last transfer great and one that I won't get trunky. No one thinks that I am trunky, or could get that way, but that is because I am trying so hard not to be! Definition of trunky: a full time missionary who comes to the end of their missionary service and talks about going home, thinks about going home, packs their bags 5 weeks early, loses focus on the work, stops caring, doesn't care about the rules... etc. I don't do those things, but I know that it gets harder not to when the big 13 comes around. So I am kind of hoping I will finally get to be a Sister Training Leader or something in a new area. We'll see :)

I was able to give away a Book of Mormon this week! It has been a little while, so I was excited to do that. We had a fireside at the church on Friday. A couple of women came because they heard about it in the paper. It was so cool, because they got to hear two returned sister missionaries talk about their missions. One went to Japan, and the other went to Armenia. After hearing their stories, I am so thankful that I came to a state side, English speaking mission!!!  When the meeting was over I ran up to them and gave them a Book of Mormon. They seemed excited to read it. 

Our mission conference was really cool! We drove all the way to Syracuse in the AP's van which crams 12 missionaries inside. President Rogers is changing a ton of things! Mostly teaching methods, and rules and such. I am loving all of it!!! Other missionaries, not so much... Some are really upset that he isn't doing what President Wirthlin did. It doesn't bother me. I know that he has been called, and set a part to do what he is doing now. He gave every missionary a piece of paper that we were to write down some goals for what we hope to accomplish for the rest of our missions and when we go home and stuff. Then we sealed it up in an envelope and he plans on having us open them up and go over them when we have our "Going Home" interview with him, to see how we have accomplished those goals. I really liked that. 

I have a pretty busy week this week, I hope it goes well! The church is true! 

Love, Sister Keller

NOT MUCH

Dear Family,

I really don't have too much to report on this week. We did have a really good week though. Great lessons, and great spiritual experiences. Our lesson with Johnson went awesomely well. He committed to come to church "on some Sunday". That's good enough for us! But only because we know that he is genuine, and has a legit reason for waiting.

 

We received some referrals from a couple members this week. We only could contact one so far, but that was a really cool experience. So the family that the member told us about had experienced a horrible car accident a long time ago leaving the father paralyzed. They sued the car company and won and got a super nice fancy house that is accessible for his wheel chair and things. They didn't know that we knew all of that, but it helped us start a good conversation with them. We walked up to the mother washing her car and introduced ourselves and said we were in the neighborhood. We told her that we knew a little bit about their experience from some neighbors and she wanted to introduce us to her husband. They were so welcoming and offered us some water. We were able to teach them the restoration and bare testimony of the Savior. They are pretty religious, so they weren't really interested in more, but they have a lot of potential in the future! Plus they just had a great experience with a couple of nice Mormon's, so now they know that we are good people.

Instead of a zone conference tomorrow, we will be having a mission conference!!! Well half of us. But that is going to be huge! We will be traveling to Syracuse for the meeting. I am pretty excited! I already love what the new mission president is doing. I can tell that he has big plans for change in the future :)

Well that's all folks! The church is true! 

Love, Sister Keller

WE ARE ALL BROTHERS AND SISTERS

Dearest Family,

This week went by pretty fast! Everyday was jam packed with stuff to do, and then we had a big Stake Event on Saturday in Elmira. It was like a giant picnic for the whole stake. It was so cool to get to drive through my old area! It is a lot greener now, and the people still look the same. I loved seeing them all again. All of them still remember me which I thought was so cool. I must have done a good job at really making them know that I cared about them. They have become such wonderful friends. Same with the Binghamton Ward and Lake Placid Branch. I will be excited to come back and visit these places. A sister who served here came to church on Sunday to visit everyone and they all remembered her too.

Last Monday, my companion and I went to a thrift store. Yeah, I did that. But don't worry, I haven't changed my mind about them. I still don't like them haha! It was cool though because the cashier was asking us lots of questions about the church and wanted to know where we were from. She was a non member, but has nieces on missions. We gave her our number.

We do service once a week at a local Christian church to clean their building. Sometimes the Pastor asks us to talk about some different things regarding what we believe and what he believes. We've given him a Book of Mormon, and pamphlets and such. He finds it all so interesting! Well this past week, he didn't have much to say. So he asked us to just share something with him or tell him something cool.  Alright buddy, you asked for it! So we taught him the restoration. He found it to be pretty eye opening. There is some conflicting doctrine to what he believes about priesthood, but he never said it wasn't true! He just had a very open heart and was willing to listen to our lesson. People like him are so kind. People like him, who listen to other's opinions and don't judge them right away is what the world needs. We should all be able to communicate openly, and share what we believe. Then agree to disagree if that is how it is going to be. But that doesn't mean we need to then fight and hate. We are all brothers and sisters, and have a Father in Heaven who loves all of us. Why waste time arguing? It doesn't get anyone anywhere. It just brings more hatred.

We had a great lesson with our Chinese investigator, Johnson. Birdy came too. At first, we weren't sure if he was wanting to learn for the right reasons. Like wanting to improve English or something. But we asked him lots of good questions and as it turns out, he has seen lots of great things in the church that have sparked his interest. He's pretty solid.

We have a new baptismal date with Adrienne! It is for September 5th. She took a trip out to Oregon to visit the member who referred her to us. She went to church with her out there, got a quad, and a ctr ring! This girl is awesome!!! I don't know if I'll be around for her baptism, but I am so glad that I have been able to teach her this far. Transfers are August 19th. 

There is one more family that I wanted to mention. They are members of the ward and we go to their house every Sunday for dinner. They have gone through so much and are  really put into hard situations. It is a mother and 2 boys. When I first met them, her 2 boys didn't really have much to think about the gospel. They felt annoyed rather than edified most of the time. But just recently, I have seen a change in them. One of them bore their testimony last fast and testimony meeting, and last night the other said that he wanted to share his! They are young, but have completely changed! It is amazing what the spirit can do, and what blessings can come as we focus on the gospel. I have no doubt that missionaries coming into their home once a week has made a difference as well. I love this family so much!!! 

Not as much as I love you guys though! I hope you have a great week!! The church is true!

Love, Sister Keller

GOSPEL MEMORIES

Dear Family,

We received another new investigator this week! He is a friend of Birdy's so we get to teach another Chinese man. He is pretty cool. His knowledge of English is a little less than what Birdy and Amelie knew so teaching him is a little bit harder. But, I am ordering a Chinese name tag, because of him so that is fun. 

I got to give a short talk in Sacrament meeting on Sunday. 2 other elders and I were asked to speak on a favorite gospel related family memory. I had about a week to think of something, and all that went through my mind was the Temple. The temple is like, my most favorite place in the world, and I realized that I have some of the most sweetest memories from them. Some of them were how I was able to be baptized for Granny a year after she passed away. Another was when I got to receive my endowments and sit in the Celestial room with Grandma, Mom, and Dad there. Although those were such special memories, they weren't the ones I shared. The memory I shared was a memory that I didn't know I had until a couple years ago. But it is one that is very dear to my heart! I remember the day I was sealed to my family. I had this memory of being inside the temple as a very young girl, and having Hannah there as well. I remember seeing Mom and Dad inside a very beautiful room. I wasn't sure why I had this memory, so I asked Mom why I did, and she told me that it was because we were being sealed as a family for time and all eternity that day. Now, I didn't know the reasons why it happened when I was a young girl instead of before I was born, but that doesn't matter to me. All that matters to me is that it happened. and I get to have that extremely wonderful memory. I know that the Lord works in His own timing, and all things happen for a reason. The reasons why my family was sealed later in my life, I know not, but I'm glad it happened that way. People, mostly converts, came up to me and shared their stories of how they remember being sealed to their families as well. They were so grateful that I shared my experience and reminded them of their special day, and that wonderful memory too. 

Speaking of family, I found a brother whom I am related to! Sort of.. His name is Brother Pettingell, and he is in the ward here. I went on to Family Search and he gave me a book to see our history line, and we have the same Grandpa 10 generations back! We aren't a direct line, but we have the same roots. I thought that was so cool!! I remembered that Pappy's mother was a Pettingill, and so that jogged my memory. The spelling is different, but the grandpa that we are related to had the same spelling. It changed after a couple generations from "E" to "I" in my family line, and stayed "E" in his line. Families are awesome! The church is true! 

Love, Sister Keller

     

UPLIFTING WEEK

Dear Family,

We had a pretty uplifting week! It started off great! I can remember how hard it was for all of us to get involved in the Bishop's life and get on good terms with him, so we all prayed as a unit of how we can better strengthen that relationship with them. We had a Family Home Evening  with them as you know and invited them to do online missionary work. They were excited about it! Not only that, but it became a great way for the Bishop's wife to be in contact with us easier. She sent us an IM about her daughter needing prayers because she was sick. We promptly did so and followed up to see how she was doing a few days later. She told us that she had a full recovery and had a new strengthened testimony of the power of prayers! Their family loves to have missionaries over now. On Tuesday they invited all of us to come over for a themed dinner! It was a PJ,PB&J party! Everyone came wearing their pj's including the bishop. Talk about building friendships. Luckily that was our last appointment for the night :) But it was lot's of fun! 

We got a new investigator on Thursday! She was a referral from a member. They work together at the mall and she had been sharing with her how much the gospel has blessed her in her life. She has been searching in many different religions and has found truth, but not all of it. She has been seeking the one that had it all. We asked her what it would mean to her if she knew that this church was true. She said that she wouldn't need to search anymore. We are so excited to meet with her again! She said that she is going to have lots of questions so we will be ready for that. But I have no doubt that the the church is true and can bring joy to everyone. She will see that. 

On Sunday we were asked to sub for a primary class. They were the 4 and 5 year olds and there were 10 of them! Our lesson was on "I can be a missionary" It was sort of last minute so during sharing time, I came up with a lesson plan. I thought it would be fun to have them know what it is really like to be a missionary. So we got them in to companionship's. There was enough kids for everyone to be in one with their own gender which was super cool! Then we had them act out what a missionary does the moment they wake up, to the moment they go to sleep. We wake up, get on our knees to pray, exercise and do jumping jacks, eat breakfast, put on our name tags, study, and head out to work. We had them as a companionship knock on the door from the outside and do a tracting door approach. They were so cute! Then we pretended to teach each other about Jesus Christ and show pictures. It was lot's of fun! 

EEEEK! I'm totally nervous about later today.... Someone is in need of our help. They are handicapped, and need help with getting their laundry cleaned. Their home is infested with bed bugs though. We will be in a laundromat the whole time but getting it there and taking it back is what we are afraid of. We have a plan to avoid anything coming into our apartment. Luckily we wont have to step foot into our home until we have clean clothes because we made sure to have some to change in to and wash our buggy ones downstairs in the complex. Just pray for us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The church is true!

Love, Sister Keller 

HEAVENLY GUIDANCE

Oh the joys of transfer week. Luckily for me it wasn't too stressful. I get to stay! So does Sister Hess. I figured that is what would happen, since I am still training her. I am really praying now, for the Lord to help us have a desire to keep working hard and find new people. After staying in the same area for a while, it gets difficult to keep up the excitement. You start to get tired of the same people putting us off and finding the same results day after day. So we really want to have new experiences and not feel burdened down by staying here. I know that there is still so much work to be done here, and so many people to see. We just need Heavenly guidance to show us where and when. I have a feeling that we will be getting some pretty exciting training's from President Rogers soon. He has a hunch that we all need some more motivation and to rethink our missions. I am not saying that I am slacking or anything. I am more excited than ever, and I only have 12 weeks left! I want to make them the best!

President Rogers and his wife are pretty cool. We got to see them last week and they wanted to shake our hands and talk with each of us individually. They just love all of us and can see the missionary spirit that we all have. I could tell they were tired and overwhelmed. Their first day here was traveling and meeting all of the zones. He said that when they were waving goodbye to President and Sister Wirthlin, they could just feel the weight of the load press down on their shoulders indicating that now their journey had officially begun. They also said that the load on the Wirthlin's seemed to be so light that they were floating in mid air hahaha. I am excited to serve with them for the next 3 months.

4th of July was alright. It wasn't near as exciting as it was last year. The weather was rainy and we didn't see fireworks. We could hear them from our apartment though! That was pretty cool. So a couple elders from our unit wanted to invite us to go to a baseball game that day. They said that a member would take them, a less active member would be there, and it would be tons of fun. It seemed like it would be okay given the circumstances of who would attend. My companion really wanted to go and I thought it would be totally fun to be able to go to the game. But then I felt like that was not such a good idea. For one, it wasn't p-day, two, we technically aren't exactly allowed to take part in or sponsor athletic teams which to me means going to the games. Three, I have this little feeling of guilt inside me every time I think I am about to do something that will cause someone else to be disappointed in me. To me, that is worse than punishment. So I was a "party pooper" and decided we weren't going to the game. I prayed that the Lord would make up for it and cause the rest of our evening to be worth while for my companion since we chose to do what we are actually called here to do and that is to bring souls unto Christ. We did end up having a super fun evening of teaching some members and getting them excited about doing missionary work. They had a super big desire to find friends to hear from the missionaries after we were finished with them. This isn't missionary work, this is missionary fun! I'll go to games in 12 weeks. The church is true!

Love, Sister Keller

TENDER MERCIES

Dear family,

So I find out this Saturday what will happen for transfers!! I'm pretty excited! I have no clue what will happen though. Since I'm still training, I could possibly stay another 6 weeks, but I have also been here for a while already. Most of the members think that I will finish my mission here since I will only have 12 weeks left! I hope to change. One more area sounds pretty good to me.

As challenging as this week was, we couldn't help but notice all of the blessings and tender mercies we received from our Lord. We had almost all of our investigators express feelings of not wanting to commit to anything more. We have been struggling to find new people to teach on our own, and have been really relying on Heavenly Father to help us. I really felt His love for us this week though, and how much He is aware of us! 

We had a very hard day on Wednesday, and just continually tried to see the good in it so that our spirits wouldn't weaken. Then the next day we talked with so many wonderful people on the streets and on the bus ride home we took after meeting a member referral. That person wants to investigate the church now, by the way! A woman from our ward has a co worker in the mall that has been asking lots of questions about the church. So we had someone drop us off to go meet her. She is awesome! I'm excited to start teaching her. We didn't have a ride home, and the only way I knew how to get home from the mall was using the free way. We weren't in our area, so I don't know the streets. We started walking and talked with tons of people along the way after saying a prayer that we would find someone to help us. We met a really nice woman at a bus stop who helped us out. The bus driver said some very kind words to us as we were getting off. Something about meeting us in Heaven someday if we never meet again here. We just knew that we were meant to be there at that time to meet him. We gave him our card and number so hopefully he will find us again or missionaries find him. 

We had a less active member come to church that I have been working with since the moment I got to this area. He finally came for the first time in so long! Hopefully now he will start to see that he is cared about and missed. His daughter even started praying a couple days before for help. She has recognized that prayers work. I am just so happy to see him making an effort to get his life back in order.

I took a step back one day and said a prayer for personal guidance. It was pretty powerful. After I said my prayer I learned that I need to bare my testimony more. That is how I can become a more consecrated missionary right now. My testimony is the most powerful witness I have of our Savior and I know that if I share it at every opportunity I get, then I can never go wrong. Especially with the people we are teaching and who are struggling right now.  The church is true!!!

Love, Sister Keller