Surprise we heard from Grant!

Hey, just so everyone knows I may not write home on monday but tuesday depending on the way things work out. The mission has received Ipads and president has called 3 people to sorta be IT people and help solve any bugs or problems with the Ipads. I will be one of those 3 people so Elder Gossel and I will be in Lyon until wednesday while I receive "training". I will try and write home as soon as I can!!

I love you all and hope you have had a great week!

Monday, May 18,2015

So I said we probably wouldn't be able to write until tomorrow but...here I am writing. 

We take the train to Lyon today and tomorrow to do training :)

Madame Gil, started this week out by saying she wanted to push the date out further. We set up a time where we could meet and talked her through it. She said she wanted to still get baptized but needs to take care of kids on the weekends for the next month. Elder Gossel responded by saying "well we can baptize you in a lake this wednesday if you want" I was kinda shocked when he told her that honestly. But, she found time to get baptized on the 23 in the nice Toulouse baptismal font :) So all is back to normal! 

We made a cheese cake for our investigator norrick! he really enjoyed that! We told him it came from america :P 

Nothing crazy happened this week. Other than getting called to be a mission IT person. Lots of contacting and talking to drunk homeless people on the train about Jesus. Holy cow, this guy tried to sell us a Jauguar car. Then he puked in the bathroom on the train...Its no wonder why we have the word of wisdom. That man was not a pretty sight.

I love you all and wish you a happy summer! :D

elder Keller

Mission letter from Grant

Subject: more fun in rodez!

This week was just filled with lots of missionary work. We didn't do anything out of the norm so no fun stories.

Maude is doing great! Our second lesson went well. She said she probably couldn't come to church this week because of work but said she will try to come next week. The lesson went really well and she responded well to all the questions. Her mom wasn't there but she said she was going to teach her mom the restoration of the gospel! Pretty excited! We don't have a third lesson set up for the time being but she does want to see us again! Thankyou for the prayers! 

Madame Gill told us that she wants to get baptized she just doesn't know when. She wants to have her date on the 23 of may but might not be able to if her daughter in law needs her to take care of the grand kids. It is honestly a realy strange relationship that she has. 

Norrick feels like he is progressing but doesn't at the same time...he has also been a little flakey on lessons. all bad signs. We still pray for him.

We had our Zone P-day today which means we had the whole zone come to toulouse and play games. Lots of ping pong, lots of table soccer. Baby foot is what they call it here...

I have been really tired lately. haha and my alergies have been going crazy here in France! 

I love you all and hope to see you in a few years! :)

Elder Keller

the best part of mother's day was skyping with this awesome missionary!  It was so great to visit with him and hear about his investigators and his life in France.  Just love this kid.

Latest from Grant

Subject: Maude (pronounced mode, like load but with an M instead of an L at the beginning)

Maude, about a month ago we went door to door and found the COOLEST person ever! she was super cool with us talking to her and talking about the gospel. Infact she wanted us to come back and explain more about the church when her mother was home. Well we finally got to teach her this week and MAN is she the coolest! She is half African and half French so she has that funny African laugh and eats really strange food but speaks perfect French all at the same time. Not fair. Anyways, we taught her the plan of salvation and we pulled out the puzzle with all the pieces and she put the whole thing together without us explaining anything. She literally knew the right answer to every question we asked! It was unreal! At the end of the lesson Elder Gossel said "In my year and a half of missionary work I have never had a first lesson where the investigator knew all the answers". Super cool! Plus her mom was there too! AHHH it was wonderful! We are going to see her again tonight, fingers crossed this lesson happens. Being African means that she has no sense of time. Literally I have had African investigators who show up 2 hours late to meetings and ask why we aren't there. But they are incredibly receptive to the gospel!  Anywho, I am really excited for our lesson tonight with Maude. We will be teaching the restoration of the gospel and explaining the BOM and its importance.

Norrick. Last night we had a make or brake lesson. We asked him a lot of questions about what he thought and why he wasn't coming to church or trying to change and he got a little offended and called Joseph Smith a Wizard. It was something he learned from his pastor. I didn't know Joseph Smith did sorcery. After a lot of explaining I broke down and told him why Joseph smith was so important and the Book of Mormon. Then I bore my testimony. It was probably the most heartfelt honest testimony I have ever given. I told him all the reasons and even an experience that I had as to how I know this church is true. After, Elder Gossel bore a similar testimony. And we think he finally got it. Like, this is the first time in a while I feel like he is actually going to pray and read the book of mormon to know if it is true. If he gets that response I know he will be a strong member. He is someone who, once set on a task, never waivers. I really admire that about Norrick. I would love it so much if he could get a tangible response. Something that would anchor him in this church forever. He would be just what this branch needs. Someone who doesn't get offended, knows how to work hard, and isn't afraid to put in extra hours.

After Norricks lesson last night at about 9:30 we were walking home and a Police car rolled up onto the sidewalk and the driver through the imergency brake down and the car squealed to a stop. The driver and passenger doors swung open and two scary looking French cops got out. From behind one of the buildings another two cops walked out and, we didn't realize this until after, but there were two more officers just ten feet behind us. We got "patrolled". apparently late at night this is common in Europe. Elder Gossel said he had been controlled a couple times in Germany. Nothing crazy happened. They just asked who we were, we had to give them ID, they spent 10 minutes trying to read my American drivers license. They asked a lot of questions like what the name tags meant, who we work for, where we were coming from and where we were going. Closer to the end of our conversation with them one of them asked if we had a bible. We showed them the book of mormon and what seemed to be the head officer read through the intro and couple first pages while the other officers were checking our ID. It was kinda cool because he asked some questions and we got to teach all of the big scary French police officers what the book of mormon was and how it came about. They now know who Joseph Smith is and about half of the first vision. That was a really fun experience! and a really easy way to share the gospel! when people ask you the questions. hahaha :)

That seems to be the highlights for this week. Madame Gill is still doing just dandy. Elder Gossel continues to find the Grossest sausages to eat. The members continue to be really French. all is well :)

Merci pour les priers!

Elder Keller

 Pictures of Rodez, where Grant is serving right now.

 He filled his journal and just bought this journal and pen to continue journaling about his mission.

Letter from Grant

Subject: I get to stay in Rodez! wooot wooot!

Transfer calls came in, Elder Gossel and I are staying in Rodez.

So this week we spent 5/7 days not in our sector so I really do not have a lot to tell you about our investigators. 

However, we got to go to Lyon and have a massive conference and see everyone! That was SoOO much fun! At the conference we got to learn about Ipads from two seventies! Elder Nielson and Elder Kearon! They both did a fantastic job. Granted, anyone could have told us we were getting Ipads and we would have been super excited. Basically they stressed the fact that Ipads are Tools not Toys. The mission president can see everything you have ever downloaded so no angry birds for us. They also stressed that the best Filter comes from your heart and mind. Basically, you are the best filter, so keep your mind straight! 

I look forward to being able to use Ipads! We can do some really cool languages studies! We will have the ENTIRE gospel library on our Ipads and we will even have the area book and our planners all electronically. For mothers day in Three weeks I can Skype in through my Ipad (probably at a mc Donalds). 

We are also allowed to have Facebook. We will be making a new account as our "missionary account". I guess you can find me on there but everything will be in French...We will friend the members and then ,with their permission, friend their friends and try to find new investigators like that. We are allowed to post spiritual thoughts and invite people to baptisms and other churchy events.

We can also start a blog...I am not sure how all that works. We will find out at our next Zone conference or Zone Training where we will actually receive our Ipads.

So there it is. Madame Gill is still progressing.

Norrick is being a bum, he hasn't been intown at all this week.

and our two new engagès are doing just fine. 

Love you :)

So the first couple photos are from when we went to a members house with the albi elders! The members live out in the middle of the campaigne and so we needed the albi elders car! Yes, that is a samurai knife. Infact, this member always has his butterfly knife on him and usually an extra. It kinda reminds me of matt :) So, we think beef Jerky is a pretty manly food. But, the French dry and season the ENTIRE LEG OF THE PIG! (you can find dried pig leg at almost any grocery store too...) and then cut off slices to eat. Yes, it is crazy....DELICIOUS! Ethan would be in heaven right now. 

The last picture is off Ashly Baggs from wx xc team.  (I don't know what the expression on grants face means in that pic...  not ready for the picture?   funny kid)

These were Grant's MTC companions/roommates.  

Letter from Grant this week: April 20, 2015

Subject: This week on, BREAKING FRANCE!!

Wooo! has been the word of the week. Although, our transfer calls got moved to this wednesday. Sorry, I still don't know if I will stay or go.

One of the members, Julio, in Rodez has the girl living with him. Her name is Aniesse. She is the bane of our missionary existence in Rodez. She doesn't want to marry Julio and really just does not like us. She plans activities with Julio after we have planned meetings with him just to get him to not go. I may sound biased but trust me i'm not! She laughs during the prayers and disrupts our lessons with him with her atheist banter. Anywho, our last meeting with her went really really well. Why? Because we got to teach her! That's right! This week someone posed the question "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" yes this is a very big dilemma in France. Basically, the conclusion that she came to was "god must have put one of them on the earth first". From there Elder Gossel and I took this as an opportunity to teach! We explained that because god made the chicken he therefore must have made the Earth! And he made the earth because...then we explained the entire plan of salvation. I felt like Ammon teaching King Lamoni! Building off what little information she had and by the end she said she believed that the entire plan of salvation must be correct! It was a wonderful experience and we look forward to teaching Aniesse more!

We engaged two more people to baptism this week. Earlier this week, while porting, I called all of the old contacts in the phone and fixed a Rondez-vous with a man named George! When we went to the Rondez-vous later that week we were greeted by two africans! George and his wife Blanche(Blanche means white in French but she is not white...she is african) We taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ and they were both incredibly receptive! Infact, asking them to be baptized just flowed into the lesson, it felt really natural. They agreed, we fixed a date in two transfers from now, and they both wanted to come to church tomorrow. It felt to easy. We later learned that the members really have struggled in the past to intigrate George and Blanche. There are no members with cars that can drive them to church and George and Blanche do not have money to take a train. Basically, they would have been baptized a while ago if they could get to church. We will likely continue teaching them and trying to find a way. 

Elder Gossel has been working me hard this week. This was easily one of my more stressed out weeks. We missed 5 out of our 7 language study hours due to Rondez-Vous during those times. We also skipped dinner twice to accommodate for lessons and extra contacting time. So, as dad would say, "we built a lot of character" this week.

Those were the highlights for the week!

Madame Gill has a testimony that the book of mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. We are rearranging her date for baptism so that she can go on vacation with her grand kids.

We have been having less and less contact with Norrick. its realy sad. However we will see him tomorrow! :D we are going to change things up a bit in the way that we teach him...... fingers crossed.

We have almost officially lost a less active this week. Good members making/saying really stupid things to her. 

Thankyou for your support! It is good to hear from yall!

Elder Keller

 District meeting, I'm guessing exploring on pday and playing basketball at zone conference...

This was our zone Pday in Toulouse. We had another exchange with the zone leaders...We got to play basketball underneath this super cool bridge next to the college! I met this chinese guy named Yane and we got to be pretty good friends by the end of the day. The chinese elders got his number so hopefully they can start teaching him!

Another missionary posted this on his blog this week:

Anyway! We had another exchange with the district leader, Elder Gossel and Elder Keller. I went with Elder Keller. He is cool. He is just in his fourth transfer. He is in the same group as Elder Brill. Our exchange was pretty "relaxed". We took and hour and a half bus ride to a members house, did service, ate pizza and left. And that was our exchange! haha

Letter from grant: Week 27

Subject: Transfer calls this Friday?

This week we found three ami's that really seem interested and could easily progress towards baptism! On the other hand, there are two members here holding a grudge against the missionaries for something that happened a few transfers ago. A missionary asked to help a member quit smoking and the member took it the wrong way. She started spreading weird rumors about us. I feel like I am in JR high again. So we have spent more time than we would have liked trying to rebuild our relationship with said member. Oh well! Not everyone tries to be more christ like each day! Is what elder Gossel keeps saying.

This week we had a really cool experience! we met people from Bangladesh (yah I have no Idea how to spell that, plus I can't get these blasted internet café computers to spell check. The guy who runs this has so many random programs and some viruses. Please do not send any valuable info across the internet to me. It will likely get stolen!) Anyways, the Bangladesh people were sweet! They can speak in english so we communicated like that. They are here because the husband is somewhat important in the Bangladesh government and he is trying to escape Bangladesh rebels. He even showed us his music videos. Yes, he has multiple music videos of him and many other mostly naked indian ladies. A little weird but what else are you going to do with all that money? After we contacted them, in broken english they said " we make you indian food, you want come?" Both me and elder Gossel said "YEAH!" And trust me, that was some SPICY indian food! He made the BEST curry! And kept apologizing about it too! He kept saying "I find not the good indian spice here. When I find good indian spice I make Spicy curry for you". That curry was really hot. I don't know if I can do hotter curry! haha, I did manage to eat all of it....but at the cost of a few tears.

The missionary work has been going great! We spent all of saturday and sunday going door to door and found the coolest people! The first two people are this mom and daughter from africa! The daughter is half african and speaks near perfect French. They are the BOMB! After we gave our little pitch they were actually excited to hear our message! Not that I should be surprised, I just assumed they were muslim like most africans here. But yeah! We will see them in a few days and give them the first lesson! 

The third person we found actually contacted us...that either means someone is really good, or really crazy. Elder Gossel thinks he is crazy, I think he was just excited to see us! He contacted next to the local park. His first words "hey you, yes, I want to take your lessons or whatever you do" From they way he talked and knew the little details about every other church It sounded like he is searching for the true church! Although he was confusing up all of his apostles. He told us that his name was Saul....like the rock that christ will build his church on. I have hope that he will be a great new investigator. Elder Gossel thinks otherwise. I guess only time will tell!

Madame GIll is still progressing towards baptism. Slow and steady.

Norrick still hasn't gone to church. We may just kidnap him and bring him to church one day.

We played basketball this week! Half way through this sweet muslim guy, maybe thirty, asked if he could play! He wasn't very good at basketball but we got to introduce ourselves and our purpose to him! :D

I love you all! 

gardez le sourire! :P

Elder Keller

Sorry for the weird timing of my emails... from Grant

With paque(easter) everyone in France decided to take monday off so all of the internet cafés were closed....I hope no one freaked out or called the mission office.

The highlight of this week would have been conference and my exchange with the zone leaders! 

For conference we went to a members house with an investigator. We watched conference in english because both the investigator and member want to learn english! However, our member got "tired" after three sessions.... so he kicked us out. So I have not seen any of sunday's sessions...Not really 100percent sure what we are going to do. We might try and go over to the members house later this week.

Exchanges! I got to go on exchange with elder Mcbeth(i think thats how it is spelled). I really enjoyed doing missionary work with Mcbeth in Toulouse! We got to meet a member family and give them cookies! They were so excited to see us. At one point the members asked us if we could help find the missionaries that baptiezed them. Fun right? Horible idea. We hopped on their computer, punched in the elders name, and found his picture! We pulled the picture up, it was him holding a book he wrote....an anti mormon book. The member was just heart broken. She grabbed the mouse and scrolled down to read the article further. He is very anti against the church. Elder Mcbeth and I just kinda looked at eachother really sheepishly. Neither of us knew what to say! After a few seconds of silence the member said "he may have lost his testimony; but I know the church is true and him not being a member isn't going to change me!" If that wasn't the perfect reaction to a bad situation I don't know what is. To stand by your faith and hold fast to what you know. I don't know if this single instance strengthened my testimony more this week or if it was General Conference. Both are pretty close :) 

We are getting our transfer calls a week early. So by the end of next week I can tell Y'all if I am staying or going. :)

avec lamour (with love)

Elder Keller