Mission letter from June 15

So we had another lesson with Patrick Chambeau! We were sitting down
at his table and talking about life. He got an interesting surprise
scholarship opportunity and gets to stay in Rodez to do culinary
school instead of moving to toulouse! So we get to keep teaching him!
Then he said something like "Yeah, I used to really like wine but,
soon I wont be able to drink it" curious, I questioned him further
asking "why wont you be able to drink wine anymore" and his response
was "Oh, I cant announce why yet". He had been super smily ever since
we had walked into the door and It clicked. He is going to announce
that he is going to get baptized! We hadn't talked about the word of
wisdom but I knew he had been hanging out with one of the other
members in the ward; the two have actually become pretty close.
    I smiled really big and said that before he can announce anything he
needs to know that the baptismal font is always open on Saturdays. He
got this really confused look and said "But i wanted to be baptized
this Friday!" in an almost upset manner. I laughed pretty hard! HE
WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED! He served us some really good Martinican food
and we talked about all of the steps he needs to take before being
baptized. We made a little plan and fixed a goal to get baptized in
three to four weeks from now. He is not sure which weekend he wants
the baptism on :) But he wants to be baptized! I was super ecstatic!
My companion was a little confused because patrick wouldn't formally
say what he was going to announce. :) But when I told him that Patrick
want to get baptized he was pretty happy too!

Other than that, we have our last zone conference with President Roney
this week. Elder Pittsenbarger has been a fun companion! I look
forward to next week! loves.

Avec amour,
Elder Keller

Grant June 8th letter

Sent: Monday, June 8, 2015 9:31 AM
Subject: Colleague Changes

So, this transfer I lose Elder Gossel and receive Elder Pittsenbarger!
Elder Pittsenbarger is from Las Vegas! He likes baseball, lifting
weights, gambling, and his favorite color is red. Oh, I just asked him
if he has ever been gambling and he said that he has never been. But I
havent been with him long enough to know if he said that with his
poker face on or not.

This last week with Elder Gossel was interesting. Unfortunately we
spent a good amount of time not doing missionary work.....We needed to
let him pack, write letters to members, print off Swiss tickets which
are much more annoying to get then regular french train tickets, and
we had to fix the sink. Yes, while Elder Gossel was cutting his hair
he sat down on the sink and broke the entire thing off the
wall......Sooo we ran over to one of the members and borrowed some
supply tools. However,  in the white hand book it says not to handle
power tools Elder Gossel made an exception for fixing the sink.....

What time we did spend being missionaries we had another lesson with
Patrick Chambeau and WOW his lessons are so perfect! He told us that
he believes everything we have said is true and that he just needs
some time before he makes the decision to be baptized. On Saturday we
received a text message where he wrote "Jonas and Grant, I have
discovered something amazing, and I soon have much hope(Im sorry thats
just how it translates over from French) to join you three
brothers(the third brother is a member that he has become really good
friends with) in the truth!" and maybe this got us really excited but
I am super excited! I don't want to jinx anything(knock on wood(can
missionaries be superstitious?))  but I really think he could be
baptized this transfer!

Our other investigator that I could see getting baptized this transfer
if all goes well is Juliet. I dont think I have talked much about her
because she has just sort of sat in our member lessons with her sister
Joy. Joy was baptized a few years ago and her sister has been curious
ever since and we had our first lesson with her the other day and she
responded well to all the materiel that we gave her. We taught her the
Restoration!

Alor, voila qua, I am excited to be with Elder Pittsenbarger if I can
ever spell or pronounce his name right :)

Avec amour,
Elder Keller

Bonjour from Grant

Subject: Bonjour

    Hello, this week was good! We found a new investigator maybe three
weeks ago and this week he fed us dinner and drove us the Hour and a
half to church! He is from Martini, his name is Patrick! He is almost
deaf so during our lessons I get to type out everything we are saying
to him on my I pad because I have a keyboard! So we have ate some
AMAZING Island food and some really good lessons. We brought a member
with us to one of our lessons and he said "Patrick is going to be
baptized, its just a matter of when" and my companion completely
agrees. Patrick Loves JESUS! I know that sounds weird but he really
does! He has all sorts of pictures and little statues of him. So when
we gave him a brochure with Jesus on the Front he just loved looking
at all the pictures. In fact, I don't think he read it so much as he
just adored the Pictures. He understands really fast. We explain
something to him and he says "OHHHHH I get it...." and then reexplains
it to us :) And honestly Patrick is just the nicest guy!
    Anywho, Patrick drove us to church which was super nice of him! When
we got to church we took a couple minuets for each painting of Christ
on the walls of the church. When he met the other members he was just
so happy! During sacrament meeting I was typing away on my keyboard.
This past Sunday was mothers day and we learned that the reason
Patrick loves Jesus so much is because his mom taught him why he is
important in our lives. She passed away a while ago but he still has a
lot of fond memories of her. So when Elder Gossel bore his testimony
of Jesus, the gospel, and mothers Patrick was moved to tears.
    During second hour Patrick was super quiet. At the end of the hour he
looked to us and said "I felt something in that room. I really felt
something. I feel really peaceful!" I bore testimony to him that what
he felt was the spirt. That in the house of God we can feel that
peace. He got a big smile on his face after I said that. We walked in
silence to the Gospel Principles class. When we got there Elder Gossel
had invited one of the members to come sit in on the lesson. We taught
the Gospel of Jesus Christ which, is probably the easiest lesson to
transition into the baptismal invitation. And well, we did just that.
We challenged Patrick to baptism. He said he would be baptized if he
knew this church was true. His reason for not being 100percent sure is
that he has only known us for a week. And he wants to be 100percent
sure that it is what he needs to do in life! We were so excited! I
think, and these are just thoughts, if he keeps having 2 lessons a
week and coming to church every week he will probably be baptized
sometime next transfer.
    We are going to watch a movie tonight about the book of mormon with
most of the rest of the branch here in Rodez. I really am so happy
that we found Patrick! Elder Gossel keeps saying "he was prepared by
god for this branch!" haha so as long as we dont jinx anything we
should be good! :)

Sister Gill has been doing great too! We are going to see her tonight as well!

Honestly, Patrick has taken up most of our thoughts this week. hahaha

I have been doing well! Just cranking away down here. We still spend a
lot of time trying to reactivate less actives and contacting people on
the road. :)

Avec amour,
Elder Keller

Baptism ; )

I know, I owe you all an explanation as to why this email is coming in on Wednesday...

Monday was a french holiday and everyone closed all of the shops everywhere and since the church is an hour and a half by train we couldn't do emails then. And on Tuesday we had an exchange with some other elders and we didn't want to waste time by doing emails so we pushed it off until Wednesday. Sorry. I really do love you all! AND MADAME GIL IS NOW SISTER GIL!

So on Saturday, the day of the baptism, we got to the Toulouse chapel maybe two hours early and just prepared everything. Set up chairs, filled up the font, printed out brochures, all that good stuff. When people started arriving madame Gil was super excited! Plus we were having a total of four baptisms in the Toulouse font that day! So we had plenty of people! The actual baptism was really cool! Elder Gossel had the BIGGEST German smile on his face after he baptized her! I couldn't have hoped for a happier baptism :)

On Sunday I got to give Sister Gil the holy ghost and a blessing! That was a really cool experience too! I don't think she stopped smiling all of church! haha I don't think I have seen her happier!

Monday, or P-day, we were going to do normal P-day things But like everything was closed. SO we helped the Frick family build a little hut on some of their property. They have land in the campaign, or just the wild untamed parts of France, with horses on it! No Tanya, we did not ride the horses. But we did pet many a horse. The actual construction of the little hut was kinda hard. We had to clear a bunch of boulder/big rocks out from a little area and cleanse the spot from all of the weeds and bushes. 

Tuesday we did an exchange with the Albi Elders and I got to teach Sister Gil about the temple (she kinda knows what happens in the temple already) and about patriarchal blessings! She thought those were really interesting! We talked about the importance of the sacrament and at the end of our lesson I asked "have you felt the holy ghost more in your life since your baptism?" her response "no, but the entire week leading up to the baptism every time I prayed to know if it was right I could feel that heavenly father wants me to get baptized and I knew it was what I needed to do!" I was so happy that she had that confirming feeling! 

It was a wonderful week this week! I hope everyone is doing well and staying out of trouble :P

Elder Keller 

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.