Grant wishing he had watched more BYU Basket Ball

Subject: I wish I had watched more BYU basket ball before the Mission

*If you have not read the title I would recommend giving it another look. For all future missionaries reading this...this may or may not be good information.

Easily, the most exciting thing that happened this week was a text from President Roney (for those of you who don't know President Roney is my Mission president. He is also the owner of Newskin if any of you know what that is). Our text said "Go to this address and get Brandon Davies number for me" with an address at the bottom.

 Holy Cow we were excited!  

Immediately we took off towards the address. We were expecting to find an apartment complex or even some small houses. What we got was the Chalon Basketball stadium. We walked all around the stadium trying to find a way in. It was mid-day and literally no one was outside the stadium. 

After our first one and half trips around the stadium we saw a nice looking lady walk into a set of double doors. We followed her through and discovered a small looking front desk with a rather grumpy old women. We asked her if she knew who Brandon Davies was and her response was a mix between a MM-HMM and a UH-UHH. So Elder Duckworth pulled the "were american" card and she told us to go around the outside of the building to door 8.

So off we went! Half way around we noticed a skinny guy in gym shorts with a basket ball open a door and go into the building. He didn't go into door 8 but he looked like a basketball player! So when we got to the door we poked our heads in. It was a dark room and smelled like sweat. We took about two steps in before we heard a SLAM! Yes the door behind us shut. Yes the door behind us locked. So you have two american missionaries in what turned out to be the locker room for the basketball players. I wasn't scared, I felt completely fine until Elder Duckworth said "Crap, we are definitely going to go to jail if we get caught!" That sure didn't set off an alarm in my head! About ten seconds after he said that the locked door opened and guess who stepped through? A MASSIVE 7ft tall white guy! My first thought was "OH NO SECURITY FOUND US!" but then he walked right by us....

A little surprised; but I mustered all the strength and confidence that I had built from personal study this morning and asked him if he knew how to get to the front desk in French. He turned around, with took about Three and a half seconds because he was HUGE. He looked at us and said "look y'all, I don't speak french. Can you speak English?" OH if that wasn't a relief! after we explained who we were and how we got stuck here he gave us directions to the front desk! Turns out his name is Scott and he is super nice! :D

On our way to the front desk we heard some Basketballs bouncing. And we took a peak in through another set of doors only to find THE BASKETBALL COURT! We wandered through and saw a couple people shooting around getting warmed up. We asked someone in the stands what was going on and he said that practice was going to start. That was great news! We found the portal entrance thing where the basket ball players came through to get onto the court and picked the seats closest to it. After a few minuets some more basketball players wandered through. They all waved at the people sitting in the stands before stepping on to the court. We waited for a few minuets like that and Elder Duckworth pointed out that we only had a few minutes left until we had to leave to get to our next appointment. The thought running through my head was "darn, we wasted all this time trying to get to Brandon and we won't even be able to talk to him!" Well sometimes the lord works in mysterious ways. 

And sometimes he doesn't. Literally right after my companion pointed that out MR. Tall, Dark, and Ready to play Basketball walked through the player entrance! He gave the audience a good wave and then looked at us. And got a HUGE smile! After a few seconds of awkward silence he put his baskeball down and said "Are you going to say something? Or just let the tags do all the talking?"  That got us laughing! We hopped out of our chairs and went up to greet him. We introduced ourselves and explained what we were doing. We told him we missed him at church the other week and he said something about having an extra early morning practice for losing the last game. We told him we had to go and thanked him for his time. We also asked him for his phone number so that President Roney could get in contact with him. He asked for a pen and some paper and I handed him my planner and a pencil. Yes, I got an autograph(see attachment below). Before we left we thanked him and as I went to shake his hand I realized he had a hand the size of a Small Planet! His hand DEVOURED my hand. I think I lost contact with my hand for at least ten seconds after that! 

Walking out of the stadium me and Elder Duckworth were both just going crazy! We were so excited to have met Brandon Davies! 

The week was pretty good missionary wise! We got some sweet new investigators and I learned A Lot from my exchange with the zone leaders! I hope you all had a great week!

Love from Elder Keller

Grant's 14th week out in the mission field/first transfer

This week we only taught two lessons. It was really sad. Elder D got here and literally everyone we had ever taught just wasn't available. We spent almost all of our time out contacting and searching out less actives because we couldn't set appointments. Elder D is strange. He sleeps through exercises in the morning, although I did get him to go and run with me twice, and he doesn't have a lot of energy to go and do. 

When we first got back from the train station, after swapping companions, Elder D opened up his biggest suit case with all of his clothes and spread them out on the floor. For the rest of the week this became his clean clothes pile. He would wake up, walk over to the heap of clothes, and put it on his body. It's disgusting that he leaves his clothes there, it's even grosser when you think that the spot where he leaves his clothes was the spot that I used to do all of my exercises. 

Elder D's favorite food is chicken nuggets and potato balls. Yes they have chicken nuggets in France, Yes potato balls are deep fried mash-potato's rolled up into tiny balls. I am starting to imagine that this is how mom feels. So I made a goal to eat healthier this week. Although he doesn't eat healthy he does have a healthy sense of humor! He jokes often and makes light of most situations throughout the day.

But don't think that Elder D is a bad missionary. Once we get outside and start contacting people he fills with energy. He is a great contacter and is pretty funny! He gets along really well with Laruant and Anthony so that's awesome! and during the two lessons we had this week he was really sensitive to the spirit and honestly gave a lot of effort in teaching.

 I know that this next week is going to be good though! After a whole week of no responses our ami with the baptismal date(Thibaut) decided to see us today. I think that for a whole week of contacting we really didn't contact as many people as we could have. So I plan on bumping up effectiveness. This week will  be better; we will talk to more people, we will be even more delightful, and we will eat a more colorful array of foods!

Sorry for the short email, with lots of contacting there isn't much to write about. Heck, we still haven't even seen Brandon Davies yet.

But, I am happy! :D  and the weather is getting better, or so the church website says. I sure hope with prophets and evangelists we can make a good weather forecast.

Elder Keller

I found this picture on Laraunt's facebook page and copied it.  Laraunt, Elder Perry and Grant at Christmas time

Letter from Grant - out 4 months

Today has been exciting! I got to help elder Perry leave. It was sad. I really grow to love Elder Perry, even with his uniquenesses(dad, is this a word?). I believe that what I learned with Elder Perry will influence me the rest of my mission.

This week was special! First off Stevens family, the Garniea ( pronounced gar-knee-ay) family, let us come in and do a family home evening with them! That was SUPER  COOL! Elder Perry and I played some hymns on the guitars and we were all just talken and being friendly. Eventually we asked if they had read the book of Mormon at all and Madame Garniea said that she hadn't found time too;but wanted us to share a story from the book of Mormon. did prayers just get answered? I think so! We read them some stories from the Blue book and had a prayer, AS A WHOLE FAMILY. If that wasn't just the most exciting thing! Afterwords Steven was reading the book before we left so I hope, and pray, that he reads more of it!

We did in fact run in 0 degree weather this week! It was even snowing! woo

Another step back this week was with Katy Berry. She came to church today! woo! and while at church, during gospel principles class, she opened up her catholic prayer book instead of the hymn book. Yes that is right, our investigator thought she could find Mormon hymns in her Catholic Prayer book. Elder Perry explained to her that the book she was holding was only used by Catholics. Katy Berry's response was " you guys aren't catholic"? 

Elder Perry sighed and in English said "we spent our first 5 lessons explaining that, 5 lessons! how many times do I have to explain this!" (he may or may not have gotten enough sleep last night because of packing. We have been actively teaching Katy for 4 months...But looking up! Us and some of the ward fasted for her. We fasted hoping that her relationship with her kids gets better. I think she felt the power that came with that.

We got to visit Françis this week! That was nice! He wants to keep meeting with us! Apparently he has been stressed out with his book lately and trying to get it published and that has consumed most of his time.

Elder Duckworth. I have spent 3 hours with him, so far. He is pretty quiet, doesn't say a lot, hasn't laughed yet, hasn't cried yet either soo...

From what I have gotten to know he is a pretty down to earth kinda guy and likes football. He is excited to meet Brandon Davies and Fr. Dougy.

Elder Keller OUT

Mission letter and pics from Grant

This week was uneventful for Chalon mainly because we had two exchanges and exchanges take SOO MUCH TIME. However we did get to meet with Justinian twice this week! That was super cool! We helped him find better ways to spend his time by playing basketball with him! He is not a very good shot but whenever he did make it we would cheer and give him a high five! At one point his sister came out and played with us, she is a less active so it was good to get in contact with her and build that relationship!

My exchange with the zone leaders. So Elder D is a really cool missionary! He leaves at the end of this transfer so I asked him all of my random questions. Elder D understands french really well and can bring the spirit quickly, he is a seasoned scriptorian and is very social. All are great aspects for a missionary and I am striving to develop all of them.  We didn't effectively use all of our time our on the road contacting and we waited thirty minuets on an investigator that didn't show up. Yes we were doing missionary work, but we could have been SOOO much more effective! It was a good learning experience that filled a few pages in my journal.

Tocafas!!! The Tocafas are a less active family that moved here from new zealand to play rugby! Yeah for some reason rugby is just huge in France. Anyways, we finally got into their house and met their family! We have a Family night planned this week so Ill keep you posted!

Thibaut, this week Thibaut got a vaporizer. I felt like we lost some ground when he showed us. He thinks it will help him get off of the cigarettes faster and be easier to quit. I really don't know how to help him progress; he has been struggling to read the book of Mormon daily and keep any other engagements that we give him. At this point he knows what he should be doing but has made the decision to not do it. Next lesson we are going to try and reevaluate and ask him a bunch of questions as to what is holding him back from keeping theses engagements. 

I look forward to this week! We may be running in 2° weather (Celsius of course) but we have been running! I look forward to Brandon Davies coming to church next week! And I look forward to making the best of what is likely to be my last week with my trainer Elder Perry.

With love

Bisous!

Elder Keller

I sent you a bunch of pictures of me "improperly" using my new resistance band but still getting a good workout ;)

The castle pictures are actually of a catholic Church in LYON! we visited it last P day. I almost want to say that I have visited it before...could you maybe find out for me :D

Letter and pictures from Elder Keller (week 10 in France)

So the coolest new investigator that we got this week was Justinian Ducour! He is the Elders quorum president's son and on Monday he sent us a text saying "hey, I want to stop smoking when can you come help?" Obviously we were like YEAH! So we saw him on Tuesday; when we got to the Ducour's house his dad opened the door and sat us down at the table. Justinian came in from his bed room wearing saggy pants and a T-shirt with a scary looking bulls head on it. We got talking to him and just asked him why he wanted to stop and such. Turns out he came to the conclusion that he doesn't like smoking and wants to do more with his life! Elder Perry and I were both very excited; we gave him the "how to quit smoking in 7 days" packet! The packet is about four pages long and just talks about all the things that one needs to do to break the smoking habit. One of the points on there was to find an active outdoors activity. That was hard for Justinian because in France after the age of 16 you don't have to go to school and....well, lets just say Justinian has been playing video games for like two years straight sooooo he isn't the most active person. But he really likes 2K14 and watching basketball so we convinced him to let us come play basketball for a few minuets next week! I am really excited to help Justinian! One of the things on the "how to auit smoking in 7 days" packet is to pray and have faith in Heavenly Father! When we asked him if he thought God would help him in his quest to quit smoking he said yes! That was super good news! I look forward to helping Justinian next week!

Françoi. We found Françoi out contacting one night about a month ago, however, his dad just passed away recently and was a member of the Lyon ward. Also, Françoi's dad was a pretty active member because news spread up into Chalon. After we heard this we remembered that we found his son the other night! We called him up and asked him if he wanted to meet with and talk about what his dad believed in and the Plan of Salvation! Françoi agreed and we met him at the church Thursday Night. 

Françoi is about 5'11 and RIPPED. He is a manual labor worker for a brick wall company and just lifts bricks all day so it was a little intimidating when he was sitting on the other side of the table from us. We started talking about this life and our objective here on earth, we moved on to the after life and what heaven is like, after a little more explaining Elder Perry told him that the first step in getting to heaven is to be baptized. I kid you not when I say that Elder erry gave him the Baptismal question in the most natural and normal way I ever could have imagined! Françoi wasn't taken back, in fact, when he asked him it seemed completely normal! Definitely something I hope to be able to do one day! Françoi said he would be baptized if his Girl Friend warmed up to the idea. Flash back to our first contact with Françoi on the street. We walked up to this couple on the street and asked them if they would like to take a questionnaire, the girl friend leaned in and squinted trying to read our name tags, after a second she went OOOOH NO Jesus Christ and tried to pull Françoi away. Françoi, being the bulky man that he was didn't budge when she pulled him and said "allez" in french that means "you go". We gave him the questionaire and he was actually interested in what we had to say and wanted to learn more. In my mind I was thinking "she's going to be a fun one. The lesson after that was great. We taught him about the restoration and gave him that lesson too! When we left we gave him the engagement to Read the title page of the book of mormon and read the Restoration pamphlet. We have been praying for Françoi and our second lesson with him on Tuesday!

Saturday SPORTS! So, every Saturday the branch has "samdi sportif" to encourage less active members and invite other members to come get to know the members of the branch! This was the first Samdi Sportif of the year annnnnd our turnout was two companions of missionaries, Lauraunt, who basically is a missionary( he's 20 and got his call to england! :D) and Justininian's sister Anne(who is less active). We played Ultimate Frisbee with them, they seemed to enjoy it!

Brother Picard, Brother Picard is about 50 years old and less active. Recently he let us into his appartment and we have been trying to get him to come back to church. He has a really long sad story of falling away but that happened years ago and we're hoping that we can reactivate him! He LOOOOVES gospel music and the best part is his gospel choir that he sings in! We visited one of their practices it went like this. We walked up to the building, we could hear people singing on the inside and it didn't sound to bad and I was thinking "it is going to be fun to hear a French choir" then Swoosh, the door opens up and we see about 40 people, all older then 40, just singing their hearts out while this skinny guy in skinnier pants and a greaser jacket from the 60's is playing individual notes on a flimsy electronic keyboard. I couldn't help laughing because every time he shook his head "no" his Gotea swooshed around! Anyways, this chorister was trying to help this choral sing the right notes because, I hate to say it, but they were not good at singing. If you asked me to place money on it I would guess 1/2 of everyone there was tone deaf. We found Brother Picard and started looking at his music sheet and singing with him. About half was into the song I realized that all these people are singing gospel music, IN ENGLISH! It was fantastic! Just good old classic " PRAISE JESUS!" kinda music!

Anyways, I love you guys! Thank you for all the emails and prayers so far; Please pray for Justinian, Françoi and Brother Picard, they need the prayers!

Elder Keller

Pictures:

 The castle is super cool looking!! found it on a car ride to a less actives (we have over 100 less actives in our area so we see lots of them)

Laurant is the kid in yellow and the blue kid on the bridge, hes like almost a missionary so he hangs out with us a lot!

I made Sheppards pie this week and a TON of breakfast burritos, thought I would send you pictures :)

It may have rained the night before frisbee so we may be a little muddy.

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