First transfer for Grant

Elder Keller had his first transfer Monday.  We were happy to hear from him yesterday, even though he does seem a bit tired in his letter and it gets worse in my letter!  But I wanted to add a little bit of my letter that he sent to me.  (it's at the end)  I thought I'd share it because I have loved seeing him grow, not only in the Gospel, but within himself.  Its been a  wonderful blessing to have him in our lives as a missionary.  : )

Subject: Rodez!!!!!!

So, yesterday I spent 12 hours on a train and two hours on a bus. wow. Hence the late email. I have been sent to the city of Rodez! Its presidents favorite city. Apparently, he baptized the very first person in this branch after having 20 investigators at church. I mean not at church, his appartment.

There isn't a branch here yet, we share with the branch in alby. but they are getting a building here this summer! Super sweet! I hope I can stay for a while. 

My new companion. Boy, when I found out he was German I immediately threw a happy fit! He KNOWS HOW TO COOK SAUSAGE!? wow! His name is elder Gossel! and do you know who is last companion was? Elder Smith from the MTC! so thats been fun! although, elder gossel does not eat lots of food. For dinner, a half a bowl of pasta; for breakfast, one packet of oatmeal; for lunch today, couscous. I might starve to death, or get that european bodAYY! hahaha He does make really good food though! 

So when getting off of the train here the first person I met was this man named Mark. Elder Gossel said "we have an ami here who wants to see you" and before I could brace myself this 5'8 big ol iraqian man came up and hugged the life out of me. Mark is literally the happiest person I have ever met! He just loves everyone! He wanted to see elder Smith off and greet the new missionary here so he spent 25 euros to take the train to Toulouse to come and pick me up.... 

Anyways, thats like all I can think of for now. I am a bit tired and the guy next to me at this internet cafe is blasting metal music out of his headphones and it makes it kinda hard to think. good thing that wasn't a run on.

Love you all! 

Elder Keller

Hunter wrote me, yey! I am super excited that hunter is going to Honduras! haha he is going to love it! I feel that for a mission to be successful, or, for you to stay out on a mission you really have to be 100 percent committed and he sounds excited and ready. I remember the first couple days, maybe even the first week thinking " what am I even doing here" and then I found something to fuel my desire, or I found my desire somewhere. I found love for that investigator at the mtc. I LOVED zach. More than elder Brill. and all the sudden it made sense. I am on a mission to give these people the gospel and since then I haven't doubted or asked "why am I here". 

You would love Rodez. Its the prettiest place in the WORLd! it reminds me of that house on the hill scripture! 

Prayer, it really works. It is like a sand timer thing. the ones that you turn upside down and the sand begins to fall. every time you pray about this thing it is like a grain or two of sand. It takes lots of prayers to build up a worthy little pile. Its easier when two or three people are praying for the same thing. Chose something specific. and Pray. :) I know this is true because everytime I have done this it has worked. 

24 weeks out, 18 weeks in France

Subject: I still can't believe it.

So since I have been companions with Elder Duckworth he has always said "work hard during the week and people just show up at church asking to be baptized". Obviously  I didn't believe him. Yet, clearly I am wrong. This week was a hard working week since we have had less lessons with our investigators; so that means more time out contacting and going door to door. We want to start this thing called "Getting Jerseys" basically its when you get someones name and number! We got six Jerseys this week! That is like six potential investigators! Anywho, we worked hard and got some Jerseys but didn't really commit anyone to coming to church. But, a young couple, in their twenties, just showed up to church yesterday with one of the less actives in the ward. The less active brought them because the young couple wanted to find a church in which they could raise their kids in. They want their children to have "faith" and hope in something. Well, I am no expert but boy do we have a message for you! So that was pretty sweet!

We are going to play basketball with Justinian today! This will be the first time in 5 weeks. Wow. We are really excited to see him though! and the less active who brought the young couple to church said he might come play some ball with us! 

Elder Duckworth was sick on Friday. That was my first experience taking care of a sick elder. We only got to go out side for an hour or two but when we did go outside it was like Heavenly father just put every single person we had ever talked to out with us! Okay, we hop on the bus at our stop. We went down one stop and an old potential investigator got on the bus! We ran up (okay not really ran up, I mean we are on a bus) and started asking how she was doing! Elder Duckworth doesn't know her since it was Elder Perry and I who contacted her, but we started talking to her and unfortunately she wasn't to interested in learning about church but she did say she would come to "Soir Famillial" or family night tonight! Go down another stop. Another old potential investigator got on the bus! Its like we are taking the magic school bus. We talked to him for a bit but until he, unfortunately, excused himself at the next stop. But the stop that he got off was the stop that a Less active got on! So we asked how she was doing and tried to fix a day that we could pass by her house.

I know the lord blesses those who work hard. I know the lord blesses us when we pray. I know that being a missionary is SUUUPER fun! I love you guys and hope that you all have wonderful weeks!

Elder Keller

Pictures! the pictures of the crown. There is this game where the baker of a cake puts a little baby jesus in side the cake. the cake cooks, you serve the cake. Whoever gets baby jesus is crowned "king" for the day. We played it at a members house. Joy.

Grant's letter March 2, 2015

I feel really fat. This week we ate dinner at members houses 4/7 nights and a really nice member dropped goose off for dinner on Sunday. This is like the best branch to have ever existed.

We spent a lot of time out contacting this week! We had Fifty seven conversations about the gospel. That is 8 more conversations than I have ever had! We fixed almost ten appointments with people but no one showed. Honestly it was kinda hard having so many meetings fall through and by the end of the week I felt like we had wasted a lot of time. But the lord blessed us! Our work did not go unnoticed.

 This entire transfer Elder Duckworth and I take two prayers aside just to ask Heavenly Father if he will give us people to teach to grow this branch. The branch hasn't seen any new members in over a year and you can feel the affects of that on the branch. But yesterday we had a super cool miracle happen! Half way through church an older couple, grand parent age, and their thirty five year old daughter walk into the building! They are moving here from another city in France! All three of them are investigators from a ward down in Axon-Provonce. The mother is scheduled to be baptized in our branch on the 7 of march! The Husband said he still has some things he wants to work on before he gets baptized and this was the daughters first experience with the church! HOLY GUACAMOLEY! If I have learned anything in this branch it is that the power of prayer is SOOO real and SOOO applicable in our lives! 

Jesus gave a parable about a man who goes to his neighbors house looking for bread in the middle of the night. The man continues to knock on his neighbors door until his neighbor opens and gives him bread. At the end of the parable Jesus explains that if we knock we will receive. Talmage clearly explains that if we continue in constant prayer eventually the lord will open his door and give us what we want. As long as it is good ;) This was made clear to me and Elder Duckworth as we asked the lord twice a day to give us people to grow this branch. And like the sleepy neighbor who eventually gives bread to the wanting man, the lord provided. I can not tell you how excited the entire branch was. One of the members, through tears, said (and this is directed at the new investigators) "After talking to you for five minuets I feel like I have known you forever". I am so grateful to be here in Chalon and to watch the lord unfold this miracle. I know that the lord has helped us every step of the way and we owe it all to him. He is blessing this young branch with wonderful new people who are already fostering strong testimonies. I know the power of prayer is real and that our God is a God of mercy; he loves his children and he loves us even more when we talk to him on our knees.  I love this Branch and I love the missionary work...oh, Missionary FUN! :D

So about the title... During our contacting this week we ran into Brandon Davies, his wife and her parents! WAHOO! we got to talk for a while and Brandon's mother in law offered to take pictures of us and send them to our parents! So hopefully mom has gotten that and can attach the photo to this email :) It was a fun little experience and really lightened our day! and even better, BRANDON DAVIES GAVE US CHURROS!!! yes, we got fed by a famous basketball player ;)

This week was hard, feet hurt, legs hurt, we were worn out, but it was sooooooo worth it! 

Elder Keller

Mission letter from Grant

Yes indeed Chalon is having a Carnival! I uploaded a picture of the confetti that the parade dumped ALL over the streets(yes, the names of the shops here are a bit odd). It has been a little rainy the past couple days so I hope to get some sweet pictures of the Carnival for you guys next week. 

This week we had a zone conference and President Roney let us watch Meet the Mormons! That wasn't missionary work, that was missionary FUN! That little quote has been what Elder Duckworth says when things are hard. For instance, we were contacting people the other day and we got a very good look at an old ladies middle finger and Elder Duckworth said "this isn't missionary work, its missionary FUN!" 

Beaune (pronounced "bone" like the white things inside your body), is a very pretty city just right outside of Chalon. It is in our sector so we figured it would be nice to go and contact some people up there. Well turns out Beaune is the Heart of the French wine industry and every other person that we contacted asked us if we had tasted the wine yet. It gave us many opportunities to Teach the Word of Wisdom; some people thought that that made us very interesting, others not so much. Our coolest contact in Beaune was this guy wearing all Lakers gear. Jersey, Hat, Shoes, the works! We have found that people wearing clothes that support sports teams are usually the easiest to start a conversation with because you just ask them how their team is doing and they just start talking for years! Anyways this guy we contacted his name Swan! And he said that he wanted to see us again, so that was really cool. He also said that he has looked into a lot of religions searching for the truth so we are hoping to set up a rondez-vous with him.

The work here is moving along. 

Service! We got to go help a member move a rock statue into his house yesterday! Its the first service we have really got to preform for someone in a while so it felt good to get out and assist him.

Super cool teaching moment! We teach an English class here every week and one of the people in the class, Fred, asked about our religion! Fred came to English class to learn English and nothing else and so when he started asking questions about the church and why we were called Mormons it was a great opportunity to share! It really makes me happy when someone has a genuine interest in our gospel! It didn't seem like Fred wanted to go to church the next day or anything but we hope that over time he will come around to asking more about us and maybe even taking the lessons!

We got a less active to church! HOLY GUAC_A_MOLEY that was exciting! He has been a less active for a little over ten years and do you know how we got him to church? We sent him a text the night before that said "hey, we hope to see you at church tomorrow". And he came! We have a rondez-vous with him on wednesday and we really just can't...well, I can't wait to see him. He runs marathons and is into running. 

Je vous aime tous! (pronounced" ju voo-zem too" translated "I love you all")

Gardez votre foi! (pronounced "gardey vow-tra fwah" translated "keep your faith")

Elder Keller

 all the confetti from the festival