February Happenings

A few February things that happened this past month.  Troy brought home flowers for valentines day.  Ethan bought his girlfriend a Scooby for Valentines, she brought him and Ana some yummy homemade cookies.  The best treat was that missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints changed missionary P-day communication with family rules.  So we get to call or facetime with Sister Morgan Keller every week now!  So fun to see her smiling face and to hear her laugh.  Wonderful treat.  About an hour before she was going to call I told Troy it feels like Christmas, waiting for presents.  Best present ever :)

We also cleaned out the condo so that we could rent it out.  Well, I worked on it for a couple of weeks, Troy has been studying for the Utah Bar Exam.  After 20 years of practicing Utah is going to make Troy take the Bar again.  He's been a bit frustrated as he feels it's a waste of his time.  Time he could have been working or spending with family, which includes fishing.  Ethan and Ana have been studying for the ACT test all month also.  Hopefully there will be lots of high scores next month!  Valentines Dance was girls choice and Ana and the girls who asked to Christmas dance decided not to ask so that night we ended up with a dozen boys and girls from the ward and neighborhood to have food and watch a movie.  Not much different than going to the dance, haha.  Ethan had to run for a bit and do some yearbook interviews at the dance.  Just so you know he dressed up for the occasion, he changed from shorts into sweat pants.  Is that a mom fail?

February was also filled with lots of late nights for Ethan as he had to perfect his lighting abilities.  He ran one of the spot lights for the Farmington HS production of Guys and Dolls.  The kids did a great job.  The stage is pretty big, they could have had another 20 kids up there.  Fun to go watch.

Last of all, Ana purchased a dwarf hamster.  She finally has a pet.  She kept asking for a fish, but you have to have an aquarium set up for a fish, so it never happened. She started asking about other things and I said sure anything in a cage that is smaller than a rabbit and you can buy a bag of food for it.  So she got a mini hamster, the fastest kind in the world.  It can run a human marathon according to Ana.  Faster than a cheetah...  Pretty awesome.  So the week before Troy kept telling Ana she should look online for a used or free cage for it, but she didn't.  I guess she didn't have enough money to buy food or a cage for it.  So she still bought it and put it in a box with some cut up fruit and veggies.  After not eating those she's been feeding it granola and chopped up nuts.  Fingers crossed it doesn't chew threw the cardboard box.  Good times at the Keller house.

Letter For Sister Keller From Her Mom

Good Morning Sun Shine!

How are things in Glocca Mora?  Is that willow tree still weeping there? Does that lassie with the twinklin' eye come smilin' by and does she walk away, sad and dreamy there not to see me there?
So I ask each weapin' willow and each brook along the way , and each lass that comes a sightin too ra lay.  How are things in Glocca Mora this fine day?

Name the musical stuck in my head.....  I think New Zealand could be my Glocca Mora...  Hmm.

So I did see two musicals this week!  I finally saw the Broadway musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, even if it was at the Hale theater.  Tricia went with me and it was a lot of fun.  One guy plays all 8 of the leads relatives!  He was pretty funny!  Little bizarre, but I think you would have to be to make it work.

Then yesterday I went to see Guy and Dolls at Farmington HS.  Ethan worked one of the spotlights.  The guys in the show were really great and some good voices.  The two main female leads we good.  The one stole the show, she was hilarious and had a great voice.  That stage is huge, they could have had 30 more kids up there.  Ethan did a good job keeping his spot light on :)

Although he has complained that this has been too hard of a week with all the late night practices so he didn't (wouldn't) get up for Mission Prep!  I know he'll go on a mission, but I don't know how prepared he's going to be.  Hahaha, his poor mission president.

Last week Tanya came up to  have a break from Taylor so we thought things might have been done.  She even brought her art supplies back up that she had just taken down.  But she was back down last week, so guess they got stuff worked out.  They came up yesterday so that Ana could take pictures of them.

Teaching the beatitudes in Primary today, things to do to make us happy...  to be meek, humble, kind, turn the other cheek, etc.  Stuff I need to work on.  Practicing patience with Ethan this week, I'll let you know how it went in next weeks letter :)

Love you,
mom

Some fun news is that Grandma and Papa Tingey are building a new house in St. George. Very exciting, maybe it will be done when you get home next year!

Let's Hustle

Fun fact of the week: Sister Fonua can juggle three things at a time! Unless it's slow drivers, patience, and roundabouts...

2nd fun fact: there are more roundabouts than stop lights in Hamilton! :)

3rd (less) fun fact: Fonua has road rage...

This week has been busy busy busy! On Tuesday we had an amazing lesson with our family that's getting baptized! We took them to see the temple, even though its closed down, and I just felt such love for each of them. The spirit truly testified of the truthfulness of the gospel to them, and the importance of temples and families in my own life. On Saturday we took them to a baptism another set of Sisters in our District had. It really helped them feel confident about their baptismal date on this upcoming Saturday. I am so excited for them, I have so much love for each of them!

Thursday was Zone conference! We had a pretty amazing training from Sister Cummings about keeping an eternal perspective. Then the Assistants to President gave a great training on how to better plan our day. We put our knowledge into action and planned for the people we need to see this week and how we would best help them. It was awesome!

From all across the globe!
We are working with a woman in our area named Seema who barely speaks English and who's first language is Hindi. It's been... interesting. I'm not sure if she will progress too quickly, but she loves when we talk about Jesus.

We started working with someone over Skype who lives in Michigan! She has a lot of questions, which can be a good and bad thing...

Kingsley and Frank in Zambia still love the gospel and really want to get baptized, but it's a little difficult with where they're at. We are going to try to find another way for them to get baptized, but they may have to move closer to a branch. The Lord will always provide a way!

My spiritual thought this week is found in Doctrine and Covenants 93:24 which reads:
  "And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come." I love this scripture so much. It makes me think about how truth is independent, how it exists solely because it does. It doesnt matter what the world says about our church, the validity of our gospel does not depend on any other perspective or opinion. It's true because it's true. I love this gospel and am beyond blessed to share it with the Kiwis of New Zealand :)

I hope yous all have a wonderful week!
Much love,

Sister Keller

1-2. My kiwi family :,)) dont worry I got permission from each of them to share the pictures! Also why am I so tall part 336...
3. I was lookin fly for Zone Conference so obviously had to take some pics ;)

Thought you might like this shot of Farmington from a hike the other day, and these awesome clouds.

Antelope island in the distance (right side of photo). Lagoon straight ahead on the valley floor. Our home would be in the clump of trees just to the left and in front of lagoon.

Hope you are having a great day. Can’t wait to talk again.

Dad

Exciting times for missionaries!!

Fun fact of the week: missionaries can now call their families every P day!!!!!!! So! Much! Excited!!

Heyyyyy ma dudes!

This week has been hectic! Tuesday through Thursday was kinda slow, but Friday things really picked up. In the morning, I sent 5 Book of Mormon requests to local (which pretty much just means I sent them to the local missionaries so hopefully they can teach them :)) and even started teaching one of the people! She is an old lady who always gets our names wrong, but is so cute and I love her :)

Sunday we had 7 people come to church. Seven! That's sometimes more than we would have in a month!!! I am so grateful for the Lord and all that he has done to bless the small Nawton area :)

Sorry this email will be pretty short, and I probably won't be able to respond to everyone today, I'm just super excited to talk to my family!! Things should be more organized next week though.

I love this gospel, the church really is true!! The Book of Mormon will bless each of your lives individually if you choose to read it :) have a fantastic week everyone!

Much love,
SK

P.s I think I have a new email? If I dont respond try sending it to morgan.keller@missionary.org

Mom and Morgan's Exchanges this week

Well and the scripture for this week 😊.
Doctrine covenants 107 talked about the quorum of The twelve apostles and the quorum of the 70s. I really liked that they all had to be unanimous on decision-making and if they have these qualities they were promised in verse 31 that if these things abound in them they shall not be unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord.

Something for all of us to try for.

So I just got off of the phone with the drivers license division and Jackie, after I asked her a dozen questions, just asked her supervisor if she could get the info from me.  So they are going to start the process to get you a copy of your license.  It can take up to 90 days!  Hopefully it all goes through and they mail you the forms to sign in the next few days.  She said it's close to expiring before you get back and they my deny the request, but they should call me if that happens and I can let you know.  If you don't get the forms on the next three months call me and I'll call them back.  Sorry, bit of a pain.  There will be a fee you have to pay, she wasn't sure if they take American Express or not.  If they don't then use your bank card.  It's now in the hands of your guardian angels 😇

This week was a little rougher than I was expecting.  I didn't realize how much pressure it was for me waiting all week to have Victor over with his new girlfriend. (After analyzing it I'm still not exactly sure why it was so stressful, more than the usual with Victor...  Too long waiting, fear, anticipation, wondering why he wanted us to meet her they've known each other 3 weeks, that he dropped stuff off at the house the other day without me knowing, another pregnancy? ) There were a lot of other things going on as well, so I kept thinking it wouldn't be a big deal, but it was much more difficult for me than I thought it would be.  She seemed nice, a little out of it, hate to say stoned, but slightly slurred speech and a bit of confusion answering some questions.  Her father raised her it sounded like, she met her mother last year, but they didn't get a long.  I do feel for her, tough life, and otherwise seemed nice. 

Tanya walked in and gave Ana a bunch of her clothes and I thought of saying are they modest? But no instead I said, any inappropriate underwear?  Tanya said come on Mom you asked me not to give her any I wouldn't do that.  I said I was just asking/checking.  She said I don't have the right to ask her that and she huffed up the stairs.  I said I do and she looked down though the rails and said it wasn't my business.  Taylor followed he up the stairs like The Little puppy he is.  Not much of a back bone there, he really does follow her around like a puppy...  I've wondered if it would work long term for them because Tanya could probably always control the relationship.

Dad asked the kids to come in and watch the super bowl in the movie room, v and k came in for a bit. I think Tanya was still ticked with me. Dad mentioned it was being like a stranger in his own home.  I feel bad because I was check out by that point.  My other trigger was when Victor had walked up behind me while we were talking in the kitchen, I was making cookies, I just froze.  Tanya style, I wanted to walk away, but I just stood there cursing dad for leaving the room and praying he, V, would move away from me.  I got some problems don't I.  I didn't realize I was still so tripped up by him.  This is turning into a journal entry, sorry. Sigh.

To keep or delete.  I figure you'll get it, but I don't want you to dwell on it.  I'm going to be fine, just didn't realize I was so worked up over the girlfriend thing.  Now reading back over this, I'm wondering if it was him just coming by last week.  I looked up security systems after that... It's the second time since Thanksgiving he's dropped something by.  It's a little unsettling for me.  Not enough to get the pepper spray out 😂😂 but enough that it's in the back of my mind.

Anyway, hopefully all is well with the license!!

Love you


Morgan Keller
2:47 PM (7 hours ago)
to me

MAMA YOU ARE THE BEST EVER THANK YOU I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

I'm sorry things have been stressful with Victor and Tanya. I've been thinking about you a lot this week, especially because I'm doing the mental health therapy stuff online. So the program is called CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) And it's honestly super super helpful because It's more of me fixing my problems than my therapist person (It's weird cus I've never met him and he's over everyone in the pacific haha). Anywyas if you want to watch a video on it that would be cool! IT's helped me so much with all my anxiety and I thought I'd tell you :)

I wrote about a bunch of missionary stuff to dad so read off his email! I don't have a lot of time because we went to early morning seminary then slept in and came late to email, but I'm doing well! I still have sad days and angry moods, but overall I'm happy. The mission is helping me with a lot of problems I didn't know I had, but also I get to serve others which just makes me super super happy.

I PROMISE i will email you more next week!!
Much much love,
SK


Fun to read your letter and glad you had a pretty great week.  I'm writing today just in case I don't get a letter off to you during the week.  As a last minute get away, I booked a flight to Italy!  I leave on Wednesday and get home next Tuesday.  I'm going to go to the Rome Temple open house with Tricia and Justin and their kiddos!  Crazy, I know, but hopefully it will be super fun.  But I don't think I'll take my laptop so I'll send some pictures, but might not be writing a lot on my phone.  You'll have to remind the family to give percy his ear medicine while I'm gone!!  They forgot last time.

So crazy stuff this weekend.  Klint flew down on Saturday and went to the Jazz game with Troy and then flew home that night.  But he shared some of the Kate stuff, so they may still be dating for awhile.  I guess things started moving way to fast for him and so he just pulled back and said he needed more time.  But Kate was kindof like, do you love me or do you not?  We were just friends till you begged me for a date and then she felt she should date him, and he's the one who proposed.  I think Betsy is super happy that its called off right now.  Her mama bear got ruffled!  You don't go pulling that stuff on a daughter!  So I think Kate is going to date other people too at the moment and they'll see what happens.

So other thing is that Tanya came home this weekend.  I guess she is taking a little breather from Taylor.  Two days ago she was posting kissing pictures on snap chat and now she needs some space.  So as we were talking today, she loves that he does anything she asks him to do (like in my last letter, he is her puppy dog) but he doesn't instigate and he loves to sleep in and take naps which is driving her crazy.  Made me laugh.  She keeps saying he's a hard worker, but he just works hard for her.  She doesn't quite see it that way though.  So we'll see what happens over the next month or so.  She didn't bring stuff home that I know of so I think she'll head back down sometime. 

Anyway, that is all the gossip I got.  I'll send you pics from Italy.  Love you
mom

Morgan and Dad's Letters

On Sun, Feb 10, 2019 at 7:31 PM wrote:

Klint came up today to see a jazz game so we got to hang out quite a bit.  It was fun.  He gave us more details on Kate, and it sounds like she’s been having a tough time with the break-off of her engagement but is doing better and even went on a date with someone else last night.

Last night, mom and I went to a Republican event, a dinner for the Davis county republican party at the Davis County convention center.  I think mom enjoyed it, though she wasn’t excited about going at first..  Some soldiers spoke and we sat at Congressman Chris Stewart’s table (you met him!).

Percy got groomed today, by that same woman (I forget her name) whose always done him.  He’s so much more pleasant to have around when he’s clean.

Ethan and Ana pretty much watched TV all day.  What are we going to do with those kids.  Ethan did do a practice ACT.  He’s getting there.  Ana says she took a practice ACT at school but got bored after doing about a 5th of the questions and just guessed on the rest.  Sigh.

Not much else I can think of at the moment.  Will try to send something more spiritual tomorrow.  Love you tons.  Keep up the great work you are doing.

Dad

From: Morgan Keller  

Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2019 2:17 PM

Subject: Re: February 9

That sounds way fun! Send any pictures yous have got. Man sorry to hear about Kate! That sounds very stressful :(

Ahh I'm so jealous!! That sounds so cool I hope yous had heaps of fun.

This week was pretty awesome, except for when my companion got sick haha. We have 5 sets for March 2nd which is super exciting! It was all the work of the missionaries before me, but I am more than happy to be here with them to celebrate their exciting day :) My companion committed me to taking some Spanish chats, and although my Spanish is that of an 8 year olds, I have seen the Lord work through me. I sent a referral down to Mexico! I'm waiting for the missionaries to get back to me. If they don't call by Tuesday I'm going to be muy upset and track them down... We have been calling and calling down in South Africa trying to find someone to baptize Frank and Kingsley, but they keep telling us to call other bishops and branch presidents and it's not going anywhere which is more or less frustrating. Oh well I know it's all the Lords timing, it's just hard because they're ready just the members aren't. I'm trying to keep my weekly emails short so I have more time to email family, but then I end up telling family all the stories I would have sent in my weekly so it just goes around hahaha.


I love yous heaps! Thanks for all that you do for me. Tell Ana no, I haven't seen a real Kiwi yet but I'm working on it ;)


Much love,

Sister Keller



We read your letter for family prayer tonight.  It was such a powerful letter, with the story of the 17 year old investigator going to early morning seminary and your comment that you rely on your testimony to be stronger than you are when people try to tear you down.  Morgan—this is what real strength is, relying on faith to hold onto Christ, the good and purity that you mentioned, even when you can’t see the end from the beginning.   I know the Lord is sustaining you.

Know that there have been times of painful doubt in most every faithful person’s life, doubt of one kind or another. I think of Oliver Cowdery who saw visions with Joseph and literally walked and talked with angels, but as the church grew and his role diminished and major setbacks happened, like the Kirtland safety society (the bank) failed, the temporal realities of life and its imperfections caused him to become estranged from Joseph Smith and the Church for many years.  Faith sometimes can seem a hard way to go, very challenging, but then the next moment, the spirit lifts us, and the burden is light as a feather.  Christ’s yolk is easy to bear, because if we let him, he does most of the pulling.  We just have to let him.

Love you tons.  Keep up the awesome work. 

Dad

There Can Be Miracles When You Believe!

Fun fact of the week: In Nawton 8 times out of 10 random people in their cars will wave back to you! Unless it's before 8am, then no one will... (also shout out to Sister Oberg for teaching me to wave at everyone when we were at BYU ;))

Kia Ora Whanau!

This week was up n down! It started out fantastic. On Tuesday we had a lesson with the Fakavi family. Brother Fakavi is a less active Tongan, but none of his kids or his wife are members. We've been teaching them for a little while, but this week we set them for baptism on March 2nd!!! They are so amazing. The 17 year old daughter even goes to early morning seminary! (Throwback to Texas where I could barely drag myself out of bed and I was a member haha) We've gone with her a few times, but she went twice on her own. They have such a strong spirit and I'm so grateful for them :') After we set them we blasted vocal points "there can be miracles" from the animated Joseph movie, and I was almost crying. I am so excited for them and their journey towards baptism!

Sister Fonua got sick on Wednesday, and it took a lot of convincing to keep her in bed. She told me that "Satan was trying to keep us from contacting someone so we needed to work it off and she'd feel better". I kind of didn't buy it, so I made her go back, and she slept for three hours and didn't get out of bed til the next day haha. So this week Sister Keller became a housewife again and cooked, baked, and cleaned! Also a lot of personal study, which I will never say no to :)

Another exciting thing was on Wednesday, there was a leadership meeting for all the Zone Leaders, STLs, and APs. A few of the STL's drove a really long way to Hamilton, so we got to take their companions on exchanges with us during the meeting. I was with Sister Spencer, and she is the sweetest most adorable thing! It was her birthday so we went all out and had Burger King for breakfast (that was a first for me...) and Burger Fuel for lunch. I showed her around the OTC which was cool because I still feel so new, but when I was telling her about it I realized I know a lot more than I think haha. It was a good self esteem booster!

I'd like to bare my testimony that I know this gospel is the most pure and true thing on this earth. Every day someone comes online and tries to take away my faith by arguing with me or bringing up false doctrine to convince me that what I have come to love with all my heart is untrue. Every time I feel my faith start to falter even a little bit, I always respond with the words "my testimony is stronger than I am", and I feel a surge of strength and remind them where I stand. I hope you know that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of you, and that through Christ we can feel peace in our lives that each of us are searching for.

I love yous all so much!!

Much love,
Sister Keller

Sent a picture of the Family playing Settlers tonight!

1, 2, 3 ... OTC

Fun story of the week: Yesterday Sister Fonua hucked an umbrella at my face and said "I just threw some shade your way".....

Heyya folks!

This week has been a super good week! Most of this week has been getting used to the OTC, so I'll kind of explain what it's like! (If that's super boring then just skip to the pictures lol) So the OTC is a small building full of 12 sister missionaries sitting at computers. Sounds scary, right? It's actually super fun. Whenever someone calls the number from LDS.org or sends a chat to "chat with missionaries", one of the 12 of us pick up the chat. 9 times out of 10 it's either someone trying to argue with us or waste our time (#wastehertime2k19). So chats and calls aren't very helpful in our missionary work. What usually allows us to work with people is when we get bible or Book of Mormon requests. Whenever anyone requests a free bible, we have to call them so we can verify their address and ask if they would mind if we had missionaries drop it off. Most the time we are able to bare our testimony and also send a Book of Mormon which is awesome! Usually if it's a bible request they won't let us send missionaries to them, but I know that if they read the Book of Mormon, they won't be able to deny the spirit and their hearts will soften :) When we get Book of Mormon requests we basically do the same thing, and also ask why they're interested and usually they'll let us send missionaries which is awesome! This week I even knew one of the missionaries we sent to deliver a Book of Mormon, sister Proffit from my BYU YSA ward!!! IT was cool to see a familiar face :)

Another cool thing this week is we have the amazing opportunity to teach Frank and Kingsley, who live in South Africa. Since they are half way across the globe, we have to teach them at 8am NZ time, which means I haven't had breakfast for the past week ;) Honestly the OTC in general messes up our eating schedule, because sometimes we have a 6-9 shift and don't eat dinner until 9:30. Anyways back to Kingsley and Frank. They really really want to get baptized! But there are no missionaries close to them. Or members. So we have been calling bishops and branch presidents and district presidents and mission presidents trying to find someone to baptize them. It will happen eventually!

I don't have any really cool spiritual thoughts this week, I just love Doctrine and Covenants 93:24 which reads: "And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come". The truthfulness of this gospel is mostly felt in the testimonies we hold in our hearts, but more importantly it is a knowledge that we have of this gospel. Every time we bare our testimonies and say we know the church is true and that we know Jospeh Smith was a true prophet of God, Heavenly Father blesses us because of our faith, that can withstand any trial that is placed in our way.

That's pretty much been this week in a nutshell! I know that Heavenly Father is using us to hasten his work, and is not afraid to use technology to do so! I am so so so blessed to be able to serve here in Hamilton New Zealand so that I can be a sister in the OTC! What an amazing gospel this is.

Have an amazing week, share your testimony with someone!
Much love,
SK

Mom and Morgan

Awe thanks for the update on everyone! Poor Kate :( I hope things get better for her!!

Hahaha Oh Ethan. I'm glad they're lid back! That's good, I wish I had been more like that. Hopefully she gets him off the computer every now and again... Send a picture of them?

Update me on all the siblings and their relationships haha. Miss hearing from the younger two, plus Tanya. Grant still writes which is good haha.

I'm listening to Kathryns new song on anxiety and depression and i love it!! Our family is so awesome :)))

I love love you! Sorry I didn't have too much time to respond, it was right at the end of my email time haha

I'll probably email you about the license during the week. I'm not too stressed because I have this trasnfer to figure it out, but that's probably a bad thing haha...

MUhc much love!!
SK

On Mon, Feb 4, 2019 at 12:18 PM carlin keller wrote:
Hey beautiful,

So fun to read that you are doing so well!!

I'm glad Dad were you, I've been messaging two twice this week and start and get distracted 🤪. Not good.

I'm so Dad told you that late and her fiance broke of the engagement.  I think it was mutual, but he finally told her that she shouldn't have to change for him.  He wants to run a farm after college like his parents and late told him up front she wouldn't milk chores or get up early to feed pigs, but he didn't believe her.  I think more and more he is realizing she isn't going to be a mom like his mom and do those things.  I've also wondered if maybe that's why he met Kate was that doesn't have to be his future...  But it's super sad, but probably better now than in April or after they had kids.

I've found a British show that I'm watching about a mom and her four kids, it's quit clever and funny.  It's one feel better as a parent, well or that most kids probably for in the category of one of her kids and it's fun to watch there interactions and messes.

Ethan and Julie are now officially a couple.  But at least they seem pretty laid back and slow about it.  I might stay sane through this relationship.  Downside is that she is in the ward, so if/when the break up happens, they'll still have to see each other regularly 🙄

So what happened with the drivers license?  We're you able to call or do I need to call?

Well sounds like Victor or Tanya is here, guess I have to be social...  We went out with Jennifer and David Jensen Friday, super fun and good to hear Lexi and Hunter are doing pretty well.  Then lay night we had Bronson's and Marxes over.  Matt and his girlfriend came, so Grant and Kirsten came.  Very fun.  So dinner again tonight to meet Victor and his new girlfriend, then we realized that it's super bowl Sunday!  So it may go on forever... Oh well, as we learn in primary: kindness behind with me, or fake it until you make it 😁😂 that was what my therapist always said with Ana and I and our struggles.

Percy is well, got a little sick last week so we are back on antibiotics and allergy shots.  So he's perked up and doing better.

Love you,
Mom