Mission Picture with President Nelson

Picture of Sister Keller's mission when they heard from and met the Prophet, President Nelson and his wife Wendy.

This is NEWTON -- From Sister Keller

Fun fact of the week: I have been asked multiple times if I'm from NZ because I use so much slang! Hahaha

This week was transfers!! I'm staying in Nawton, and am companions with Sister Fonua again!!! This will be her fourth transfer in Nawton, and I'm so pumped to be working with her again! We're going to get some good work done!

I feel like I haven't talked about the OTC in a while so I'll update you a bit on that :) some of the funniest phone calls I get to make are to the missionaries after sending a request to local, especially the Elders. As all of you know, I like to be sassy when appropriate. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's not. For example. One time I was calling these two Elders to give them some back ground information on a Book of mormon request, and asked if I could tell them more about the referral.  One cheeky Elder responded with "isnt that why you're calling?" And so I made a snarky remark and carried on. The next time I called his companion made him apologize to me! Haha

Another time I had been working with Elders down in Guatamala (the sisters found out I speak Spanish and now transfer all of the Spanish requests to me... RIP) and one of them used the fact that they were a zone leader against me so I laughed and reminded him I was giving the referral. He got a little upset so I had to tone it down after that...

To be a little bit more spiritual, I'll share a cool experience at the OTC. The Wi-Fi went down, which meant we couldnt do any work, since the whole OTC is dependent on computers. Most the sisters, myself included, decided it would be a good time to take a break since we couldnt do anything. But one of the STLs was actually thinking, and asked if we could all kneel and say a prayer. As soon as the prayer was said, the Wi-Fi was working again! I learned two valuable lessons: there is never time to waste when a missionary, and prayer will honestly work if you are sincere.

A really cool spiritual thought I'd like to share is in Alma 61:14. It reads: Therefore, my beloved brother, Moroni, let us resist evil, and whatsoever evil we cannot resist with our words, yea, such as rebellions and dissensions, let us resist them with our swords, that we may retain our freedom, that we may rejoice in the great privilege of our church, and in the cause of our Redeemer and our God.

Even though we do not have to necessarily resist evil with swords, sometimes our words are not enough. That is when our actions come into play. Many times people will attack us with words, but refuse to listen when we respond. The only way to maintain our courage in order to move on is to act how the Saviour would act. They can choose to not listen to our words, but they cannot unsee our actions. I know that my testimony has grown stronger as I have tried my hardest to act as I know Christ would want me to act.

I hope yous all have a wonderful week.

Much love,
Sister Keller

Oh yeah P.S if my email comes from morgan.55@missionary.org, that's my address I use at the OTC and I forgot to change it today Haha. It's still me, I pinky promise!!

Love love you all!

Letter from Grant - August 22, 2016

Sent: Monday, August 22, 2016 6:55 AM
Subject: Lunch is Free

We taught and fixed some appointments with a handful of people this
week of whom was a cool family of three and a guy from annecy and a
hobo(Swiss hobos dress like the average French person and somehow wash
their clothes and don't smell like poop.)

We helped a nice old lady take down a bench. That was good fun. She
gave us groceries for the week afterwords! Haha, we were talking about
how funny the culture in our church is to just feed and give stuff so
freely to missionaries. I guess it goes along with the words the
savior said when he told his apostles to not take with them purse nor
script. Do the work and the lord provides lunch :P

Jamel, got super sick and couldn't come to church nor get her
baptismal interview done because she was in the hospital for two days
and still at home. We were joking because she hadn't seen any
opposition in a while and then BAM she can't leave the house. Her
baptism might get pushed off. We need to talk to her.

Serge, came back from vacation and apparently told his entire extended
family that he is getting baptized Mormon. So, he has been seeing some
crazy opposition but is really dedicated. Other than we still can't
get him to church! I don't know what's going on in his head.

Ali, ate at his house again but this time with the Austins. Really
good food. Ali is still taking his baptism really slowly. Atousa his
daughter/recent convert had a rough week. Her best friend Mandy cut
her out of all social media and won't answer texts or calls as well as
wrote some aggressive things about her. It's taken a toll on her.

Dennis, turned up at church last week and we taught him twice this
week. He came again yesterday and we plan on teaching him some more
this week. Dennis is cool. Really quiet guy. Makes instruments for
orchestras and something else. Like flutes. Is willing to take the
lessons so we are happy to teach him. Elder Underwood and him are like
best friends :P I just can't seem to make Dennis laugh!

Anywho, that's the week.

Avec amour,
Elder Keller

Letter from Grant - August 8, 2016

Sent: Monday, August 8, 2016 6:50 AM
Subject: Ancien sousbois

Hey so Elder Underwood and I had a fun week. Ali Finally came to
church and Jamel Finally came to church!!!!!! At long last they are
progressing.

We taught Ali about fasting this week. How we can fast as a way to
show god that we would like to have his spirit more in our lives. Or
we can fast just to be more spiritually strong. In Ali's case we
fasted that he would have better health and overcome cigarettes since
those seem to be his big problem right now.

Jamel. She came to church and almost sat all alone. Need to find her
some friends! But she is getting ready to get dunked so we are super
excited! She has a great spirit and already has a testimony of the
Book of Mormon! :)

Well, we are off to go do stuffs :P loves.

Avec amour,
Elder Keller


Guess who made it into the Liahona :P

Letter from Grant - July 18, 2016

So this week was wild. We went to the old part of Geneva for Pday and
looked at some cool old things. Saw the old cathedral and even went
underground where they were excavating.
We had an exchange with some elders and got some good missionary work done.
At the end of Tuesday we had to present in front of the stake leaders.
They were having stake high counsel and we were asked to present on
the missionary work that's happening in the stake. It was super scary
but we talked about some important things that need to get sorted out.
Later that week we had zone finding day which was a blast! We all
exchanged companions for four hours and just went out to different
parts of Geneva and tried to find as many people as possible. It was
fairly effective. Some teams we found playing chess at the park.
Friday we presented in front of four zones. Oh boy, that's scary
stuff. It was good though. Presenting is as about as fun as it is
scary.
Saturday we went on exchange with the assistants. That was more
different than I thought it would have been. Good still, I took notes.
We finished our week in Genva and didn't really have any investigators
come to church. It was kinda sad. But I guess when you don't see them
for half the week they don't really feel the need to come. Looking
forward to fixing that for this next week.

Now for the part you have all been waiting for.

 Exchanges.

Avec  Amour,
Elder Keller

pictures in my letter from his zone conference

 Tia Xan, who Grant baptized a few months ago.  They ran into her on the streets of Lyon while on splits with Elder Huntsman.

 mtc companion

Grant is second row from the front on the far left in this last picture.

Letter from Grant - July 12th 2016

Geneve week two

Hello, we only managed to email for a few minuets yesterday due to
scheduling so we are just wrapping emails up today. Anywho, this last
Monday for preparation day the district leader Elder Brady Haug held a
district P-day where we celebrated Fourth of July with a BBQ. It was
pretty sweet, especially because Elder Brady Haug is half German and
half Mexican! He did find us some pretty tasty sausages though.

Ali hasn't really made any progression. We saw him twice this last
week and talked to him about quitting cigarettes but he's pretty
stuck. The worst is that he believes that one day he will stop but
that that day is not any time soon. We are headed over later today to
see what the doctor said about it. He should have gotten his medical
report in by now.

Jamel, we had a picnic with her and her family this last Saturday! It
was really cool to finally meet everyone. She has a baptismal date but
it's in like six months or something. After she turns 18. We were
kinda hoping that once we met her parents that they would be more open
to her getting baptized while she was still 17. Anywho, she is doing
good.

Serge, he should have gotten baptized this last Saturday but we pushed
his date out because his wife is making him second guess everything.
We finally had a lesson with the whole family and not just Serge
alone. So that was sweet, we mainly taught the wife and answered her
questions. One of which was that some one told her that after getting
baptized in our church you have night mares and strange dreams all the
time. Who comes up with this garbage? Haha, anywho, we are praying
that he will be able to make it to church this upcoming week.

Seline and family, Seline is an Italian mom of five kids. They just
walked into the church like half way through one of our lessons
wanting to talk to the bishop. We told her if she came Sunday she
could talk with him. So she came Sunday, the kids made a ton of noise
during sacrament meeting and she talked to the first counselor after
church. Apparently she needs food and something else. It wasn't super
clear what they wanted exactly other than they need help. Then
yesterday the first counselor brought a bunch of non perishable foods
and diapers for her. We kinda taught her about the church. Like half
of a lesson. Anywho, we will have to see if she turns up next Sunday.

Well, voila have a good week!

Avec amour,
Elder Keller

Letter from Grant - July 4, 2016

So we had a solid week. We went on an exchange with the English elders
which happen to be two huge Tahitians that are both learning English
haha! They are sweet. We went and passed some old investigators in the
area book and ended up fixing two appointments for their team even
though they were people from our area book. Pretty funny how things
work out.

So Serge is struggling. His baptismal date is set for this next week
but his wife is Super against him changing. She even got him to not
come to church this week so we called him and talked to him. Looks
like we will be pushing his date off a few weeks. Sigh, women.

Ali is going into the hospital again today actually to get his Final
"big" exam done. Hopefully he does all right. His entire digestive
system is super damaged. Anywho, his daughters(they are recent
converts) are doing just great. The one kinda takes a back seat at
church while the other is super into it and comes to help us teach.

Julian, I met Julian for the first time this last Thursday. She has a
baptismal date as well. Anywho, she also will be in the hospital this
week a cause to viruses. Anywho, she is awesome. Haven't really taught
her yet but apparently she has had all the lessons we are just waiting
until she turns 18 or her mom gives her approval.

This week we had Mission leadership council. That was incredible!
President I just one of the greatest people ever. I loved having him
give us just super helpful and inspired revelation. I felt that it was
more applicable and personal.

Anywho,

Us after the exchange.Avec amour,Elder Keller

Letter from Grant -- March 2, 2016

Sent: Wednesday, March 2, 2016 12:48 AM
Subject: Nimes again!

    So, This week was filled with moving the Nimes elders. It was
enjoyable to visit my last ville and see how much the work has
progressed! Unfortunately the only lady we ever engaged to baptism
didn't got through. The missionaries are still in contact with her and
she says she wants to get baptized but doesn't ever show to
Rondez-vous. Anywho, Nimes was great fun and all, except for the fact
that the new apartment was only a couple streets down on the other
side of ville. And due to the construction we had no access to the
roads to either apartments. So, we had to carry ovens, fridges,
washer/dryers, couches, and beds through the middle of the city.
Humorous enough to say, a pain in the back to do. We got some pretty
funny looks. We had a load where we were all carrying mattress,
blankets, and pillows through ville and that load got us the funniest
looks for sure! Haha

When we got back from the Nimes move it was Friday night.

    Saturday was pretty cool though. We took part in helping a member in
our ward move apartments. His name is Wesley. He is pretty sweet, he
served a mission a few years ago so apparently he helps the
missionaries go finding and teaching. We had almost the entire Elder
force of Lyon helping him move, we totaled some twelve missionaries.
The move was probably the fastest I have ever seen! Haha. We got
invited to help the Chinese elders out since they couldn't find any
guys to help them out. We played some Chinese card game called Sang Wo
Sha. I'm sure Josh can translate. It's really fun...if you speak
Chinese. Elder Carlson and I just sort of "watched" and did whatever
the person next to us was doing. Anyways, it was a really cool night,
they engaged tsen to baptism and got two new investigators! Super
awesome elders!

    We gave talks Sunday, they went well, we even got invited over to eat
at a members house after. Weather giving talks is in anyway related to
the members feeding us or not I don't know, but I am glad that they
both happened. We ate at the Bonamy family's. They are the coolest! We
hopefully will play basketball with their two boys this Saturday with
one of our new investigators. The bonamys LOVE to talk so we got a lot
more than a mouthful. But I love them! They are good people all
around. Even better, Mr.Bonamy served a mission in Italy and had the
Exact same job as we do in moving elders! Haha, that was funny, he
told us that driving in Spain was ten times harder then in France.
Apperently there are road where he was about five centimeter from each
wall and when they would get to staircases he would have to go super
slowly and drive up a step or two. Sounds like fun :)

Anywho, I love you all, I hope you stay safe and have a good week!

Avec amour,
Elder Keller

The sister on the far right sent this picture out, so sweet of her!  Grant is standing next to Louis who was baptized last month.

Letter from Grant Dec 14th

Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 7:35 AM
Subject: Excitement in Geneva!

    This week was unfortunately not as cool as last week! haha In Fact it
was quiet a bit scarier.
    We started our week going up to Switzerland to finish moving in the
Fribourg elders. We got them started but this week we went up and
moved all of their stuff and bought the last couple things that they
needed. In short we took multiple trips back and forth from Geneva and
Fribourg. On Wednesday night  we planned to drive home to Lyon but we
got a call from one of the Geneva elders explaining that there were
currently two bombs somewhere in Geneva. Both of which the police were
trying to deactivate. So, we got to stay a third night in Geneva. We
knew that people had threatened the UN a few days earlier but of
course we didnt think anything would happen. Apparently one of the
members of the Spanish speaking ward in Geneva works for the police in
Geneva and so she was feeding the Spanish missionaries direct
information about what was going on. So far we have heard that the
police there found a bomb IN the police station, bomb making stuff in
the back of some truck, and then two in the metro. None of the bombs
have gone off fortunately! Go Geneva!
    We had weekly planning for the first time in three weeks. We felt
inspired to call someone from the potentials list and one of the old
investigators and we fixed two rondez-vous for tomorrow! haha, our
only free day for missionary work too! It was really cool to see the
lord provide for us.
    Saturday we took inventory of THE CAVE! The cave is where the mission
puts old and or spare furniture that is in good condition. However,
the cave is completely unorganized, like everything 19 year olds do,
and so no one really knows whats down there. So Elder Mahafee, one of
the senior couples in the office, assigned us to organize it and
document everything that we have. So we spent a few hours doing that.
We are about half way done now. Yeah office jobs. I can finally apply
all of the garage cleaning skills that my Father taught me when I was
younger.
    Sunday was fun, both of the sisters called in sick so we got to teach
the investigators/recent convert class for second hour. If you go onto
the mission website Sister Sweeny posted a picture of us teaching!
haha, we both look super lost and confused. Anyways, church was good.
Third hour was a little strange, the lesson was on stakes and their
roles. Unfortunately our stake president was there and people just
kept asking him questions about how the stake functions.
    Anywho, that sums up the week pretty easy. Im sorry we don't have any
investigators to write about yet. Well, I hope you all do well, have a
great week! :)

Avec amour,
Elder Keller

Found some roman ruins with some other elders

Letter from Grant Dec 7, 2015

Sent: Monday, December 7, 2015 9:58 AM
Subject: Three Thousand Bornes

So we did three thousand Bornes this week! A Borne is a road marker
that is used to mark every kilometer. So sometimes people say that
they did x amount of Bornes which means x amount of kilometers. So for
those of you who don't like math we drove three thousand kilometers!
We literally started in Lyon, headed up north into Switzerland, went
down to Avignon(south eastern part of France), crossed ALL the way
over to Mont de Marson(west coast right under Bordeux) completely
spanning the country of France and back again. Oh, was it a ride!

Monday and Tuesday we were in Switzerland moving the Elders in
Fribourg to there new apartment. We even took a stop at Ikea to buy
some needed furnishings. After spending some quality time in the way
to clean country of Swiss we started our Long drive down to Valance.
We picked up Valances used drier machine and hauled it up to
St.Etienne. St.Etienne is a cute little city about forty five minuets
out of lyon. The sisters apartment there actually caught on fire a
month or two ago so we have been salvaging odds and ends from there.
Anyways, the Valance apartment got a new set of elders so we took two
dressers that survived the fire from St.Etienne and brought them down
to Valance for the new elders there. We slept at Valance Tuesday and
Wednesday night. Those elders are one crazy bunch!

We drove over to Vitrolle and Thursday morning I did my legality (I
just need to renew my  year long visa) and we had zone conference in
Aix-en-Provence! It was quiet an enjoyable little time! haha We helped
the Avignon elders buy and build a new bunkbed.

We drove and to Carcasonne and stayed the night there. Carcassonne has
a beautiful castle! wow! We woke up early Friday morning and drove out
to Mont de Marsone. Elder Acheson actually served there so we did some
service and ate with the cute old couple that he baptized. We picked
up Mont de Marsones queen size mattress and headed up to Brive
Saturday morning to pick up their spare dressers. After much squishing
and sliding we finally managed to shut the trunk of our car with a
full queen size mattress and the dresser that we had took apart. The
Matress will be going to a senior couple in Gap and the dresser is
going in the Fribourg elders new appartment.

WE drove for six hours with all this junk (picture) in the back of the car!

 oh what a trip.  We finished Saturday night off helping the Chinese team

 in lyon with one of their activities.  

Anywho, I love you all! I hope you all are doing well and don't have

 to haul massive crazy objects over three thousand Bornes!

September 28 Letter from Grant

Sent: Monday, September 28, 2015 6:58 AM
Subject: Témoignage

Fabrice, we have almost finished his fence, it only has a little bit
left. While we were working on it Elder Connell spooked one of
Fabrices goats. The beast lifted its two front hooves into the air and
with its back feat started hoping up and down. When the miniature
monster was all the way up like that it was easily as tall as my
companion! Haha, Fabrice kept telling elder Connell that he needs to
give the animal a reason to have confidence around you and not scare
it. The animal started jumping towards elder Connell and he cried out
in English "I didn't scare your devil animal it scared me!" I told
Fabrice that Elder Connell was trying to sooth the beast in his native
tongue; he didn't seem to convinced. With Fabrice we talked about
temples and eternal families. It kinda interesting for Fabrice but he
wasn't super excited about it.

Hortense. We finally had a Rondez vous with Hortense, she showed up
thirty minuets late but thats just because shes african. That probably
sounds racist but Africans have no sense of time...Anywho, we brought
Axel to her house and she started talking about how hard life was.
Axel just started testifying about eternal families and how special it
is to have a child. That her child is a gift from god and not a
burden. It was really touching there were tears everywhere.

Daniel, Daniel is an old investigator that the missionaries hadn't
seen in a few years but we made contact with him and helped him cut
his bushes! French people have really strange bushes(feel free to look
them up on line tho) and we helped him cut the tops of the SUPER tall
bushes because Im like 6`2 and he is like 5`5 and a little fluffy
around the midsection. We read Alma 26 with him and talked about how
we need gods help in life. God is pretty awesome.

We moved someone into the ward this week! That was really good! She
doesnt have any kids nor a husband but we are always happy to have new
faces! Stephenie even took us out to eat at a CHinese Buffet! that was
top.

We had a zone conference this week in Aix-en Provence. Elder Adler
from the third quarm of the seventy was there. He challenged us bear
our testimony every day for thirty days and record it! Then we can see
at the end of the month how our testimony has grown :) and our
language skills. Ill attach one of the videos for y'all. I guess y'all
wont know what I'm saying but maybe you'll pick out a couple words :)

We have started working with a less active in the ward called Sandrine
Chapus. We had a Rondez-vous at the church Sunday evening with our Fr
Pujol. She told us about how its hard to come to church due to members
and things that they have said. We explained everything that she needs
to go to the temple. She fixed a goal to go to the Paris Temple when
it opens up and also to work through some problems with other members.
Progress :) She says she still likes to read the Liahona! :) good
stuff.

This week was better then some of the other ones. I finally feel like
we have everything under our belts and that we know whats going on in
the city. Anywho, hope yall have a great week with lots of chocolate.

Avec amour,
Elder Keller

September 21, 2015 Letter from Grant

Sent: Monday, September 21, 2015 7:06 AM
Subject: Yes, this is the letter I send every week.

So, we made cookies and passed investigators and families in the ward
on Tuesday/Wednesday.

We talked to a "less active" widow who cant come to church due to her
spinal surgery. I was glad that we could visit her. She sounded like
she was getting lonely.

We made contact with Hortense. Very likely our next investigator here.
She had only been taught a couple times by the last elders but she was
on vacation or something the last couple weeks. So will see her
tomorrow!

Fabrice is doing well, he canceled on us since he went to a breeding
thing with a client so that his dogs could make babies. Not much needs
to be said about that.

We moved two more families out of the ward :( that makes a total of
four families in the past four weeks here. Thats like a family a week!
We really need to pick up our baptizing game in Nimes! haha

So the rest of the week is a title chaptered "the awkward third
wheeling elders". Ill explain, twice a year Nimes has a "Faria"
something to the effect of a party but it lasts from Thursday until
Sunday with Elephant sized amounts of drinking and partying. We left
around three on Thursday and they had closed all the roads off for
about three kilometers and set up white tents where beer and other
alcohol's were handed out. They had Spanish marching bands and a bull
fight in the colosseum. So we got to stay with the zone leaders in
Montpelier until Monday morning.  It was a pain not being in our
sector for half the week but we helped out the ward in Montpelier. We
helped two families move one in and one out of the city and go on
splits with the zone leaders.

Elder Connel was going through some things and I got to give him a
blessing. It was a very intimate moment. And I can testify of the
power of the priesthood.

Et voila, that was the week.

Avec amour,
Elder Keller

September 14th Letter from Grant

Sent: Monday, September 14, 2015 6:47 AM
Subject: I loves Nimes.

    Tuesday we contacted some and ran into a muslim guy who has changed
religions twice. He said he would be interested in learning more about
our religion and he took a book of mormon. We were on exchange Tuesday
so I got to hang out with Elder Duffy. He has been in France for
twelve days now! So he kinda couldn`t speak French haha. Our plan was
to run over to Brother Zogos house and give him a blessing for his
back and then real quickly go to Maria`s to be there for the interview
with the District Leader. While at Zogos however he wanted to sing "if
you could high to kolab" all the verses with a guitar interlude half
way through. It was a really pretty piece. We were just late to our
next Appointment haha, on the plus side it was Elder Duffys very first
blessing! So that was exciting for him.
    We had Zone Training this week! that was cool. The zone leaders
didn't talk about anything spiritual. President had them go over ALL
of the rules. We started by receiving a ton of new Ipad rules and then
they just kept coming. I got to see Elder Perry my trainer! That was
really exciting! He hurt his leg playing soccer however and now he
cant leave the apartment. That was sad, but he was keeping that super
positive attitude!
    All of Friday we prepared for Marias baptism! I got to write a talk,
try and find the button that makes hot water come out of the baptismal
font, fill out ridiculous amounts of paperwork, make a brochure, it
was just one big adventure!
    Saturday we had the baptism! She was so excited and then she got
baptized and then she was slightly upset because she was wet. Didn't
quiet know what to say about that but all is well now. The rest of
Saturday was weekly planning and time that I spent writing my talk for
Sunday! Yup, I got to write a fifteen minuet talk, I think it was the
First long talk that I have ever had to give! haha, I would happily
send it to all of you but I wrote it in French...I was asked to talk
on "Bringing the hearts unto Christ". I didn't know this at the time
but throughout my entire talk I kept saying "Khor" instead of "Kur"(I
spelled the phonetically for y'all)  and so, unbeknownst to me I
actually gave a talk on bring Bodies to Christ instead of Hearts. A
little more morbid but I think most everyone understood haha. I even
made a couple people laugh in my talk too! :) hehehe.
    Anyways, Maria is doing well, we are going to see her Wednesday and
read in the Book of Mormon with her.
    Fabrice is doing well too. We built Fence. Oh so much Fence. We
fenced off about half of his lot. He really likes talking while we
work. We fell on the subject of the Book of Mormon and I gave him a
pretty long summary of what happens inside. I really like him. His
family is crazy though! He has a Muslim Brother, a Buddhist sister,
his mom was atheist and his dad was Protestant! He told us that if he
ever choses a religion it will take him lots of thinking time! haha He
raises racing dogs for a living! Its honestly really cool, he has five
of these really tall but really skinny snouty looking dogs! Ill take
pictures this Wednesday to send to y'all.
    Anyways, that seems to cover our week. Today we are finally going to
go see the coliseum. :) and yeah. I hope Y'all has a good week! haha

Avec amour,
Elder Keller

Maria's baptism

August 17th letter from Grant

Subject: aucune objet

The week started out with us visiting David and Emily on Tuesday and
teaching David english. They are doing well. They said they probably
wont go to church until the baby comes but it is something that they
want to do. They asked some interesting questions this week. They
asked about american religions and if the Mormons are respected in
America. Of course we told them yes, it just makes me curious as to if
they are searching for a religion. Often they tell us that they are
just fine and aren't looking for a religion but as we got talking with
them we found at that both of their parents were religious and with a
young family and all. On plus they have already investigated the
jewish religion and one or two other christian religions.
We hope to bring our super member August Pascalin over tomorrow so
that they can see that we have normal members! haha they live right
next to one of our less actives and she just talks deep doctrine
around everyone. It really is not good for the work.

Patrick. For Patrick we spent a good chunk of wednesday with him. The
oppression for him just doesn't seem to stop. We read about iniquities
and thats been his favorite word to use to describe his latest
challenges! hahaha. We went to a little waterfall thing maybe 15
minuets outside of Rodez and just visited the little city. We hiked up
the mountain and just talked with him. Answered questions. Basically
just got him out of the house. He lightened up after about 30 minuets.
:) I am glad we spent some time with him.

To round our week off we had a conference in Bordeaux from Thursday to
Saturday. Honestly, when conferences last this long I almost feel like
we waste a lot of time. But being able to listen to president was
really cool. It always is I guess. He talked even more about the
temples and we read some scriptures in DandC that talk about how
temple work is literally the Most important thing that we are doing in
this life! And then President Brown challenged us to talk about
baptisms for the dead in our daily contacting! Whoo, thats exciting.
So Sunday evening me and pittsy tested out our new Questionaire. It
included some simple questions about the persons family and then ends
with a picture of the temple. I think I may have already talked about
it..
After an hour and a half of contacting we only talked to two people!
AND they were soooo cool; they were a french couple! When they saw the
picture of the temple at the end of the Questionaire they got really
interested and asked questions as to what it was and what we do
inside. So, following President Browns instruction we told them that
that was were we do baptisms for the dead and that our entire religion
is based(of course around jesus but after that) around fortifying the
family! They excepted to learn more about the restored gospel too! The
only down part is they asked for our number. :( so we don't have their
number to call them back. So we just get to work until they decide to
call us back.

c'est déjà sa la mail

I hope you all are having a good week! :)

Avec amour,
Elder Keller

August 10th letter from Grant

Sent: Monday, August 10, 2015 10:06 AM
Subject: Less actives and recent converts.

Patricks family has been getting more and more aggressive towards him
and his decision to join the church. It doesn't help that he has a
pinched nerve in his spinal column. He has always had a strange spinal
column he told us but he was lifting something for his rabbits and it
tweaked his back  and so he has been using his back support all week.
We taught him about the priesthood and how he can receive it soon. It
was a great Segway after we gave him a blessing of healing. We had our
really awesome member Fr. Pascalin there who explained how the oil was
used in ancient Israel.

Sister Gil is doing Awesome! We had a Rondez-vous with her Tuesday and
we got talking about testimonies and stuff and she, for the first time
I have ever heard her, gave a really heartfelt testimony. She talked
about how true the church was due to her reading in the book of
mormon. I think this is the most confident I have ever seen in her in
regards to her testimony. And to top her week of she finally told her
family that she was baptized a few months ago! Well, and by family I
mean her youngest son. He didn't take the news to well. He is SOO sure
that she joined a cult! It really blows my mind how many people here
just think that we are some crazy cult! The worst is that once we talk
to them about it they don't even seem to know what a cult is! Sigh,
first world problems.

I haven't written much about seour Marité but she is one of the less
active we see about once to twice a week. She has a testimony and a
strong conviction of the Book of Mormon but her smoking addiction
makes her feel embarrassed to go to church. Our lesson this week was
on the temple. She hasnt been yet and we thought it would be a good
goal for her to set. We talked about how France is going to get her
first temple next year! She was excited to hear that and happily fixed
a date for when she wants to go to the temple! She knows that she has
to quit smoking to go and we touched on that. We are excited that she
fixed such a high goal! It will definitely change her life.

I think I have mentioned David and Emily a few times. We had our first
official appointment with them this week! OH BOY, We answered all of
Davids questions on Polygamy. I think that is the first (and hopefully
the last time) that I have a first lesson be on the controversial
topic of Plural marriage. We saw them again a few days later and
talked on Joseph Smith and the Retab(definitely a more comfortable
topic). And fixed another appointment on Tuesday where we will review
the Retab and teach David some english :)

That covers the basics for the week! I felt my testimony of the
Restoration of the gospel grow this week. We have been reading Joseph
smith history with Brother Biargue and it is soo cool to feel the
power that come from the prophets own proper words of the
establishment of Christ's church in the latter days.

Avec amour,
Elder Keller

picture is grant and his companion and the Albi missionaries at the ward activity at the beach two weeks ago... grant was pretty red by the end of the day : )

August 3rd letter from Grant

Sent: Monday, August 3, 2015 5:10 AM
Subject: Re: I dont know what to put as a subject for this week

I forgot to write in my journal all week until Sunday night so that
either means we have been working super hard and have gotten lost i
the work, or that the ping pong set that Elder Pittsenbarger bought is
absorbing all of our evenings. I wont say much on the subject other
then VICTOR BETTER WATCH OUT FOR WHEN I GET BACK BECAUSE I AM GETTING
REALLY GOOD AT PING PONG!!!

Worldly things aside, Mathias got Baptized! Wahoo! It was really cool

to see him get baptized by his Grandfather. We have been working with
Mathias for almost 14 weeks. He has made lots of progress since then.
He is definitely someone I want to keep in touch with.

We had a zone training in toulouse on Wednesday so that was really
fun. Instead of being edified by the zone leaders like normal
President wants all of the missionaries to brainstorm ideas for
implementing temples into our work. He wants us to talk about them
more while contacting, with less actives, members Everyone! We tried
out contacting and bringing up the temples. It went pretty well except
for when  people ask the question "temples? isn't that where they used
to kill lambs?" Those conversations usually stay interesting :)

We have been working more and more with Patricks sister Vivian! and so
that means we have been learning more sign language! and while we were
on exchange in albi we contacted into a deaf guy and I totally signed
to him and he got super happy!! He told us he wasnt religious but was
happy that we were outside walking around talking with people. Then he
made a bunch of hand gestures that I really didnt know! haha, I felt
like I was learning French all over again! I was pretty happy to
employ my newly developed skills though.

Our week was good. Drinking plenty of water, its cooled off but not by
much. I hope everyone is doing well! I pray for you, not during every
prayer but a fair enough amount! ;)

Avec amour,
Elder Keller

Letter from Grant

Sent: Monday, July 27, 2015 7:37 AM
Subject: I dont know what to put as a subject for this week

This week started out with me and elder Pittsenbarger trying to talk
about the gospel with 100 people this week. We only talked to
45...yeah, we were on track up until Thursday! We were contacting and
going door to door for maybe three to four hours each day. When
Thursday rolled around we had our first exchange with the zone leaders
for the transfer and as crazy as life works out we had a less active
call us and ask us to do service for him and Patrick was moving his
rabbits from one location to another. So we split into two teams of
elders and attacked the service!  Elder Canard de valeur, one of my
old companions, and I helped Patrick move his huge rabbits! Ill have
to send some pics of the rabbits! they are monster sized!
So very little finding was done on Thursday to Friday. And Saturday we
were actually invited to spend nearly the whole day at a ward
activity. We were told we were going to a park for a few hours to have
a picnick. Turns out the members drove us to a Lake....So all four of
us elders were stranded over an hour away by car from home forced to
watch all the members swim in the lake. So we felt kind of defeated
because we didn't get the 100 conversations. We plan on trying not
this week but the week after because this week we have another
exchange and zone training thats almost a days train ride away so much
for being in our sector. hahaha We may have been beaten in
conversations this week but we did however get introduced to 3 thats
right not one, not two, But THREE new investigators from our members!

1 Vivian; we think she has the most potential for excepting the gospel
as she is the little sister of patrick. She speaks sign langauge and
me and elder pittsy are learning quiet a bit! It is much easier to
speak french sign language the French itself! hahaha we can say things
like "why are you blushing" "where did you put all of your money" and
"he is very drunk". Sign language is easily one of the best skills I
have picked up on my mission besides blowing tongue bubbles, and doing
my own laundry.
2 Victor(and wife); no he is not from Ukraine. Victor is african and
loves god! We met him when we were moving patricks rabbits! We have
not had a lesson per se but we have fixed a lesson for this wednesday!
:)
3 David and Emily; We made contact with them while elder Pittsenbarger
was doing service for the less active! I dont know to much about them
other then David is opening his own car shop and Elder Pittsys dad
sells mustangs so they are perfect for each-other. Also, they have the
most adorable 5 year old boy! David is pretty interested in our
religion but we are not sure if it is because he wants to join or
because we used to have plural marriage instituted at one point. Its
more important that we reactivate the less active that introduced us
and then baptize her husband. :)

That about summs up our week! Me and elder Pittsy have been getting
along better and having more missionary fun since we tried to hit our
100 convos :)

Avec amour,
Elder Keller