Grant's pday letter (week 9 in France)

Le photos

I want you to find the picture of the little yellow tag. Thats my motto for the rest of this transfer! To find love EVERYWHERE! 

The man in the parka is Fr. L, hes a super strong member and equally weird. He has a wine museum in his back yard...

Laurant opening his mission call! Hes going to ENGLAND! All he wanted was to speak English! 

The pictures of the other catholic building in Chalon with a super cool sky!

Madame B! Madame B is a black woman from guinea who Elder Perry taught for a few months before I got to Chalon. Saturday was the first time that I got to meet her! We had a lesson at her house. Our goal for this lesson was to remind her of her baptismal promise and why that was so important. After a few minuets of talking about the benefits of baptism our member Fr. L said "and this is the first step in living with your family forever" and that turned our lesson all over the place. Madame B is very loud and sometimes that comes of a little strong, but she got even louder and more "upset" sounding, and from what I understood she was talking about her family, and her ferocity(Dad, can I use this word to describe an investigator?) rose one more level and then Tears. Tears everywhere. She told us how her ex-husband had started beating their two kids. 

If it wasn't for Fr.L I have no idea how the rest of the lesson would have gone; he started comforting her and telling her that she will be okay. He even tied it back into the atonement and our meeting went good from there. She came to church yesterday and we had a healthy discussion on covenants and what they are. Madame B is a wonderful woman who I look forward to meeting with this week!

Sunday evening, after church, we met with a nice woman that Elder Olsen and I contacted over two months ago; her name is A. A is very Muslim, and when we talked with her yesterday she couldn't help but correct us on all of our religious "principals". She was teaching us how to pray and who was actually a prophet and she spent ten minuets talking about Mohammad but eventually we got talking about Jesus Christ, and his atonement, and how that can help us through any trial. Then more tears, she started crying and told us about how her husband was filing divorce papers and how she just lost her job and needs to claim unemployment. Our lesson was about over so we promised her that this Wednesday, for our next discussion, we will explain how Christ's atonement can help us with all of our trials! I am looking forward to Wednesday!

Those tears were the highlight of this week! Being able to help broken people find joy in life by building their faith Jesus Christ gives you the Best feelings in the world!

I wish you all well! it seems I have 5 emails between mom and dad so Ill write you next week! :D

Elder Keller

Hello Everyone,

I just sent an email with a few pictures, if you couldn't open it I'll also post them on the blog.

This was all Elder Keller had to write about the stuff going on in Paris (in my email):

Yeah we haven't heard much from Paris and all the mission rules have gotten stricter. We have to be in earlier and we can only use our genealogy questionnaire to contact people. 

and Josh I think he's pretty excited for you -

I HAD NO IDEA THAT JOSH GOT HIS MISSION CALL! I just heard that he put in papers!!! Ahh thats so cool!!! 

Carlin

Just a note that last wednesday two men shot 5 people at the Charlie Hebdo publication (it's like the Onion in the states).  The police killed the men Friday and an officer was shot Friday by another man supporting the muslims who attacked on Wednesday.  I heard from a friend, that Paris had pretty much been shut down since Wednesday.  We never felt worried for Grant, it is about a 4 1/2 hour drive from Paris to Lyon, and he is serving just outside of Lyon right now.

First letter of the year from Grant (week 8 in France)

So, we engaged Thibauts girlfriend to baptism this week! Always exciting asking that question!

We had a district meeting this week and Elder Perry, being the district leader, asked for my help in planning an activity! :D The activity that we set up was done in the Lyon institute building where they have more space and extra rooms. We got a street board that said "Today we are teaching how to set new years resolutions that will make you happy!" Now I know what you are all thinking " the French are to lazy to set goals for a whole year" and if I told you that was wrong I would be lying and that is something that the lords servants can not do! Most times when we asked people if they had set up goals for the new years they give a little smerk with a face that says "who do you think I am" and as many times as we got that face we got them into the institute building!

So what happened once we got them into the institute building? We had three different classes rooms set up. The first talked about how to be happy, our purpose on earth and what makes us happy. The second room taught them how to set good goals, goals that are acheiveable and helped you be happy! The third room was 100percent(yes I still cant find the percent sign on these French keyboards) centered on Jesus Christ, and they talked about how Jesus Christ can help you accomplish your new happy new years goals! It was a good activity! We dragged lots of people in and got the Lyon companions some good new investigators through this activity!

A new exciting French sauce. Two days ago Elder Perry and I contacted a man with the name of ALFRADO! Yes, someone here in France named their child after speghetti sauce! No, Alfrado is from Columbia. We talked to him for about ten minuets on the street before Elder Perry invited him to take a tour of the church! Miraculously he said yes! We showed him the geneology center and the chapel and explained the significance of each room before sitting him down in a breakout room and teaching him the restoration of the gospel, the first missionary lesson. Three minuets into the restoration Elder Perry got a call from the Zone leaders so he stood up and talked to them at the back of the room. I honestly haven't been in a situation where Elder Perry couldn't bail me out when it comes to French, but, here was my first! I taught through the entire restoration pamphlet and introduced the book of mormon to Alfrado before Elder Perry's call was finished (did I mention that I did it all in French? #Miracles). I couldn't have been happier when he said that he wanted to learn more! We set up a following Rondez-vous for Wednesday! 

I think that Alfrado is going to be a good investigator. He seemed genuinely interested in our lesson and said he wants to bring more people to our next lesson. I also felt an amazing calmness when teaching the lesson to Alfrado, it is still incredibly hard to explain, my body just felt completely at peace while teaching him. There were no distractions, my mind didn't wander, French just seemed to roll out of my mouth without much translating in my head. It just felt Right! It is exactly what I would say the word serene feels like, and it helped that Alfrado is a very queit and focused man. We asked him what he felt during the lesson and he said he felt peace and calmness. I might not be a scientist but by the evidence given the spirit was definitely present during that lesson.

I love you all dearly and wish you a good new years with smart, happy goals in mind!

Elder Keller

Week 7 in France

 The no bake cookie pictures were just for me.  We sent him the oats and cocoa to make them for the holidays.  So glad he remembered how to mix them together.  Below is his package of treats from grandma and grandpa k.  Quite the package they sent with lots of goodies.

 For ethan...

So our second lesson with Thibaut(T-bow, don't think to hard on this one)  this week was super exciting! He didn't understand why he needed to go to church! So we, as simply as teenagers could, explained that Sunday was special because we take the sacrament on Sunday. We explained that sacrament was a renewal of one of our covenants with god! After explaining what a covenant was we explained that our first covenant is. Baptism! And after explaining what and how a baptism worked we asked Thibaut why he would want to be baptized. He said "to make promises with God".

 After giving the classic " will you follow Jesus and be baptized...." line we spent some time setting a date and explaining minor details! The only thing that I can ask all of my wonderful friends back home is to Pray that Thibaut can feel the spirit when he reads the Book Of Mormon and kick his cigarette smoking. I think dropping the cigarettes will be the hardest for him. He was up to a pack a day at one point, but since he has been cutting down on them his whole body shakes pretty bad.

That was a super high point of the week! It kinda makes everything else kinda dull. I have been using most of my spare time to read Articles of Faith by Talmage. I thought Jesus the Christ talked about deep topics but Articles of Faith is ridiculous! I finished one of the chapters and was just completely stunned. I had to Reread the Entire chapter to understand everything Talmage talked about. I just can't help but be blown away by the fact that Talmage wrote these books 100 years ago. He proves the authenticity of the Book of Mormon using central American Archaeological findings! My confidence that the blue book is 100Percent(sorry I couldn't find the percent sign on these french keybaords) authentic couldn't be stronger.

So Christmas eve we got invited to the D's. We ate So. Much. Food. Not to mention the variety of food here! The French like to eat Seafood for Chirstmas? Who could have guessed! I ate three different types of caviar, four different ways to cook salmon, and two different types of muscles.  I am a missionary, and missionaries eat Everything on their plates. It probably would have been fine if Seour D would have asked if we wanted more food before she dumped heaping piles of fish on our plates. I say all of this in good light! We love the D's, they are the only family in our branch that does member missionary work! 

I love you all, we got our first snow the day after Christmas, Je vous aime! Joyous Noel.

Elder Keller

After skyping with Grant on Christmas day we learned that they did have a couple investigators and so Troy wrote and asked if he could tell us their names so we could also pray for them.  This was the letter he wrote to Troy in reply.

The one constant is change! I love it! Our investigators are Thibaut(pronounced T-bow) and Charlotte, they are living together. We just committed Thibaut to baptism, not sure if Charlotte needs to be baptized. Katy B is a black lady in her 20s and comes to church and reads the blue book but really just needs that final push to get baptized and make the steps. Françis is a black French lawyer who helps immigrants get into the country and makes sure that they can stay in the country by lining up their law papers. He does all of that for free. Françis just needs to read the Book of Mormon; he is a smart man who needs to just read the book and discover how true it is. Those are our consistent investigators.  

Last week we ran into Cyril, a punk teenager who we gave a Book of Mormon too and set up an appointment for the following day. The next day he brought two more friends Benjamin, and Flaurant to the lesson. All three teenagers had scary black shirts with inappropriate logos and such but they all showed a sincere desire to listen to our message. They all took Book of Mormons home and wanted to share it with their families. The real selling point for them was that you found out if the church was true by praying on your own! That was something that all three of them loved about the church. I have been fasting for these kids. I felt a strong connection with them. Pray that we can meet with them again after the holidays and that they will feel the holy ghost when they read the Book of Mormon. 

If you want to pray for Philip-Jacquelyn that would be wonderful. We were just calling people who's numbers the Elders from a few transfers ago had gotten and when passing over Jacquelyn's number Elder Perry told me not to bother calling her. He said last time she got super mad and accused us of being a cult and performing magic on people. But by the time he told me all of that I already had the phone ringing. We waited for the answering machine but then Jacquelyn picked up and, long story short, we gave them the church web address to clear up misconceptions and were having a lesson on Friday! With her Whole Family! 

I am curious dad, so Françis discovered that at one point our church wouldn't let black have the priesthood and the REALLY offended him. He accused our church of being racist and being affiliated with other racist organizations. I was hoping you could explain to me about the whole blacks and the priesthood, the history to that and what cleared that up. I know thats a big topic to cover! 

I love you Father, your voice often echos in my head to stay on task; or fills my head with the words that I should say when speaking to members. 
Your son, Elder Keller

Week 6 in France

 We make cookie trains at Christmas every year and Ethan suggested we send Grant the stuff to make trains.  Sweet, but not going to happen (it would weigh too much!).  So we sent him oats and cocoa to make no bake cookies, a Keller favorite.  Looks like he made them : )

He said this is a cat that like to sit on Elder P's back.

The bag of almonds Grandma and Grandpa Keller sent.  He was pretty excited about the almonds.

 Meeting Elder H and David Archuleta.

 Running into Elder C, from our stake.  Again with the blue guitar.

 We sent light up noses in the Christmas package...  and Grant sitting with a cute little santa.

Yah, so for the past few weeks President has been saying that David [Archuleta] would come and Thursday was the day! He sang a bunch of Christmas songs and a song that he wrote for the Meet the Mormons video. He has a really great voice and we all got to shake his hand! I told him about that one time when Momma Keller, Momma Jenson, Hunter Jenson, and I walked in a corn maze of his face. He Laughed pretty hard and just kept saying "Im so sorry! Im SO sorry!" His manager was next to him and laughed a bit too and asked "the corn maze in American Fork?" I said yes and they both laughed a little harder. I think there must have been an inside joke because there is no way it was that funny.

At the David Archeartbreak-uleta concert I GOT TO SEE ELDER C!!!! Yes! I finally got to see my older Trek brother! He gave me a huge hug! It was SO good to finally see him! We exchanged some stories and talked for a while before the concert started! And, dad will be proud of me, I found Elder H! We didn't have a whole lot in common but I told him that our dads know each other! I also asked him if he ever got to ride in the private jet with President Monson. Apparently, thats just something his dad gets to do.

Sorry I wont write much this week, I am saving all the stories and stuff for Skype :) cant wait to see you in a few days!! :D

Love you all! 

Elder Keller

PS I finished Jesus the Christ and President Roney said that if you send me a copy of Articles of Faith by Talmage I can read that too! 

***Grant did send pictures this week, I'll send them out in a separate letter and post on the blog.  Not everyone can get the emails with pictures.  regardingkellers.blogspot.com.  

I had asked him some questions a couple weeks ago & here are his answers:  

I asked how the language was coming along:

Doing Great! Yesterday a lady asked us,P and I, if we would help her carry something somewhere and right before elder P could translate for me I told him I understood everything that she said. We spen ALOT of time with the two future missionaries in the ward and Elder P forces me to talk to them. I have learned a lot about French by doing that. Also by reading EVERY sign and billboard that we pass.I have a little notebook that I collect new french words and then during Language study time P Quizzes me. Often during lunch and dinner Elder P turns on a gospel movie in French and I try to pick up as much Language as I can from that. I asked Elder P how good my French was in comparison to the other three Elders he has trained. He said he trained an Elder who had 4 years of French before the mission and he said that at about week 4 that we were about the same when it came to comprehension and speaking. I would say that I can say a lot, but there is a lot I can not say. During lessons I add 3-4 comments at random points in the lesson, each one being 3-4 sentences(not counting bearing testimony but actual parts of the lesson).

I had heard David Archuleta was going to visit their mission.

Yes I met archuleta

I asked if he received mail or packages.

I received 3 Christmas packages! Two from you and one from Grandma and Grandpa Keller! (and the guitar book! [I sent it through Amazon.fr, happy it made it to him] very helpful! all the missionaries and part of the ward are going to play at an old folks home and thanks to that book! The sister who plays the flute can play some songs and we can play some songs on the guitar for them!)

oh, package wise! I LOOOVE your freeze dried potatos! we eat them two to three times a week with a huge stir fry pot of veggies!  Letters are the most valued objects I think. I take the best care of them and they have the most sentimental value to me. We use the Freher fox for role plays! The silly putty was exciting but we play with it to much. The lights and christmas tree were SOOOO COOOOOL! haven't pulled out the little vibrating bugs... those might be really distracting... I use the jump rope 10-20 minuets a day depending on the workouts! I also use Elder P's resistance band A LOT. when he leaves if I could get one of those that would be nice but only if you want! Thankyou for all of the wonderful gifts! I havent opened up the wrapped packages, Ill open those up with the family over skype! Oh and I only opened up one of your brown packages. the one with the Christmas tree, the other is for Christmas day!

do you think you can send Articles of Faith by Amazon?

I love you and all your beautiful motherlyness! sorry if there R Tons of type Os ;)

I love you! 

Elder KEller 

Letter From Grant

So, this Noel season is wonderful! More and More people are willing to talk to us and President Roney thinks that that is because people are looking for presents to give. And when you think of others you feel Christs love, and when that happens you are more open to talk to Boys in Suits. YAY

We made more cakes this week. Small bannana bread cakes in old cans (yes mom we wash them with soap, and our hands). After we bake the bread we give it to others! Tuesday we decided to give one to Steven. Steven is a guy we met riding his no handed segway and we know he lives two floors above us...And we know he has a ring on his finger. (insert evil cackle here)

Not knowing where Stevens door is on the fourth floor we grabbed the cake and hopped in the elevator, said a quick prayer that we will be able to find him. Elevator doors open and guess who is on the otherside of the doors? Steven AND his wife! 

We gave them the cake talked for a few minuets and then she invited us into her apartment! We go in to discover that THEY HAVE THREE KIDS. It is perfect! They are married, they have kids, they do happen to be catholic but that's nothing we can't fix. 

We talked to them for about 40 minuets! We plan on inviting them to Family Night and trying to have a family night at their house! We hope that they become receptive and want to hear more about the gospel! we have been praying all week that they will want to have these family nights! Your prayers are greatly appreciated!

Love you all! Share the gift! 

Be happy! A smile looks better then the nicest suit!

Elder Keller

A sweet mom posted this on the Lyon France Facebook page.  It was Elder Keller's Thanksgiving dinner.  

Grant sent Morgan this picture of him playing a blue guitar.

Grant's letter - Week 4

This week was a testimony builder. We read in Jesus the Christ the in depth analysis of the parable, given by our savior, of the "different types of soils". Talmage explains that each soil type has different factors that make it so that the seed can't grow(well, other then in the perfect soil in which it is the optimal place for planting a seed). The most interesting soil type seemed to be the soil that had thorns and bushes growing in it. The earth there was good, it has the proper amount of nutrient to yield forth strong plants. But it has weeds and aggressive plants deeply rooted in the soil. The weeds choke out the seeds soon after they have sprouted. 

We work hard in sharing the gospel with as many people as we come in contact with in hopes that eventually we can reap the wonderful fruit of missionary work. What occurred to me this week was that we might not get to be the reapers. I brought it up with Elder Perry and a few times during the week we would remind ourselves that often our job is not the job of the reaper, in reaping great rewards and bountiful harvests; but the job of the sower, to sow many seeds by touching the lives of many people and praying that a few seeds land in good soil and grow up to be strong active members! 

Because we do not know who has good soil and who does not we try to plant as many seeds as we can. And as a result, we know that many of the seeds will fall into the soil filled with weeds, where the aggressive bigger plants will try to choke out the young gospel seeds. And for those people we pray that somehow something can come into their lives and clear the soil of weeds; and we pray that those people might ask us for help in clearing the soil of their addictions and sins and then, after the weeding is done, we can help them nourish their faith that they might grow and become wonderful fruitful members in clean, weed free soil.

Something I liked and felt like applied to the mission work here in Chalon. 

HE IS THE GIFT! In French it is "Il est le don" (phonetically: Ill A lu don, or you could replace don with cadeau : cad-oo meaning present) We have discovered many people who have received our message and shared the video with their friend through social media! After you could probably check out the rest of the website and maybe take the questionnaire or watch the fun videos that explain our purpose here on earth and all about God and Jesus! 

If yall want chocolate or something shoot me an email and maybe in a week you can pick it up from mom and dad :D

I love you all!

Elder Keller

They got a tree to decorate.  I feel bad we sent one, but it may be a while before they get it.

Grant said someone gave them these le petite cookies for christmas.  We had a work colleague of Troy's over for dinner last night.  She is from Belgium and she was telling us that Saint Nicholas comes on Dec 6th.  So I will have to ask Grant if that is when he received his cookies..  

He said he is wearing his French scarf he bought in the cookie picture.  The last picture is just showing that they have made some parking spaces between the trees.  That made me laugh and reminded me of being in Kiev, Ukraine.  The city streets are so narrow that in a lot of places the parking was on the sidewalks.

December 1 - Letter from Grant

So President Roney wanted us to reach 20 lessons a week twice this transfer. Thats a lot! Our mission has some 130 companionships and only 24 met the standard last week of teaching 20 lessons. But we thought that with the turkey bowl coming up that we could teach 25 lessons this week. Also note that we have two progressing investigators, and one of them got hospitalized earlier this week. So not a whole lot of teaching has been going on. We worked hard all week and spent probably more time then we should have doing service and helping out members. 

Wednesday we had our first of two district meetings, this weeks district meeting was in Chalon and we got to prepare a two hour activity! So, obviously, our activity was a turkey bowl! We made a point system and some simple rules and loosed the Entire District on the city of chalon!  We prayed throughout the week that when the turkey bowl happened the district would find people to teach and potential new investigators.We had seven different companionships contacting in the streets of Chalon and they got us four new phone numbers, two new investigators and they taught 9 lessons on the street! How exciting!

Saturday came quicker then we thought and we still needed to teach  11 lessons to reach our goal of teaching 25 lessons this week. Elder Perry brought up the idea of praying every 15 minuets, brilliant idea. We spent all of our time on Saturday roaming the streets trying to find anyone to teach! Unfortunately it was cold Saturday, It hit -1°C. (thank you mom for the hand warmers :) But we taught anyone that would listen! We talked to angry old short French ladies, Collage kids, we even got a drunk guys number, not sure if we should call him though. Some punk teenagers got us a lesson, a store clerk, a high school couple took book of mormons along with some homeless people(we didn't count teaching the homeless people) lots of people! All in All our hard day of work and lots of prayers we ended up with 13 lessons that day. We have two more investigators who we are meeting with next week! I thought three lessons was a miracle and I see now that with faith and prayers in good things the lord gives unrestrained. We  can do SO much with hard work and faith. Heavenly father prepared us last week to teach the people this week. Our 27 lessons came through from his hand and I hope that the investigators we received this week will find joy in our message next week.

Elder Keller