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