TRANSFERS!!

Dear Family,

Guess who is training AGAIN???!! Yep! I got the call late Friday night and was told that I will be taking over Vestal and training a new sister. This will be the 4th time I train! Wahoo!!!!!!! I love setting the tone for new missionaries. This is the most important calling a missionary will ever have, because they will teach them how to work which will effect their whole mission! No big deal or anything. Just kidding, its a HUGE deal. I am pretty excited. She is coming into a wonderful area and will be SUPER busy. Sister Yancey is going back to Bennington to serve with Sister Bladh, and Sister Bae will be going to Liverpool in Syracuse. So I only have 3 transfers left. 2 of those will most likely be here in Vestal training. Then I will only have the 1 left. I have no idea what will happen, but I am excited to see how it goes. I hope I finish here. 

I received a priesthood blessing yesterday. It was the first blessing I have gotten since I was set apart over a year ago. It was everything I needed to hear. A really great spiritual boost and my companion was nice enough to write it down so I can look back on some of the things I was told. Blessings are amazing. If you haven't had one in a while, I strongly encourage you to receive one. You don't have to be in pain or trauma to receive council from Heavenly Father. He wants to help, and wants to be a part of your lives!! 

I don't have very much time, or details about this week to write about, but I did have a good and busy week! We taught a lot of lessons and visited lots of members. This week we are having family home evening with the bishop and then also on another day with some recent converts. Family home evening is such a blessing to have, and I know that it brings us all closer together. Both with our physical family and our Heavenly family. I made a goal to memorize Doctrine and Covenants section 4 this week. I love that section! It is all so true, and defines the importance of missionary work to me. I love you guys so much!! The church is true!

Love, Sister Keller

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