Grant's letter July 13, 2015

Sent: Monday, July 13, 2015 9:26 AM
Subject: Voila, sa famille

So, we spent almost five days this week in Toulouse....not in our
sector. But don't go thinking that Elder Pitsy and I are apostate! Oh
contraire! We had our zone P-day in Toulouse so we spent all of Monday
bowling and hitting up all the big stores in Toulouse while checking
out some of the collage campus down there! They have an international
business school that teaches are their classes in english!

Tuesday we did our First exchange with the zone leaders. I came up to
Rodez with elder Sorenson, we taught Patrick and Madame Gil both in

the same day! haha, it was pretty fun.
Wednesday Sorenson and I did a little bit of proselyting before
heading back down to Toulouse to get ready for our First Zone
conference with President Brown which was held on Thursday!

We were all sitting in the chapel when President Brown walked in he
had his wife present first :P then they showed a slide show of their
family! When President Brown spoke he spoke on Genealogy and the new
temples being built in Europe! He told us about a really cool
experience that he had with his genealogy! I didn't think much of the
story, it was cute and was really cool that the spirit of Elijah had
worked through him before the he entered the mission field. But while
he was giving his testimony on Geneology, Missionary work, and
Temples, I had this distinct almost indescribable feeling that he was
my next mission president. It was strange. I didnt have this feeling
when I first met President Roney but after first meeting president
Roney I honestly would have done anything he had asked me to do. But
this feeling I had must have been the spirit.

During my interview with President Brown, Honestly, he felt like he
was a Blue(french version of greenie). I am not trying to be mean but
it was not even close to the interviews that I had had with President
Roney. But during the whole interview I kept thinking back to the
feeling that I had had when he was giving his testimony and it hit me.
I think the spirit knew that I was going to be too judging of
President Brown so the spirit gave me enough push to trust him, to put
my confidence that he will lead this mission in the direction it needs
to go. Something I learned during our conference was that President
Brown seeks the spirit often in his day to day work. I feel kinda bad
saying all this but its the truth of what I thought. However, after
all of it happened I have faith in President Brown leading this
mission in the right direction :)

We drove to Albi with the Albi elders Thursday night and spent the
night there. Friday morning rolled around and Elder Pittsy went to do
his legality at Albi. Friday night we were in Rodez and got to see
Patrick and OH BOY did things happen while we were gone. Patrick has
had his nephew and his nephews girl friend living with him in his
spare bedroom. Well, Patrick found out that his nephew was growing
drugs(it only has one leaf on it...we don't know what kind of plant it
is yet. His cousin kept saying it was a flower) in Patricks apartment.
Big NO NO. Patrick gave his nephew 10 minuets to pack and then he had
to leave! During one of their arguments however the nephew pushed
patrick. So patrick called his sister and his brother to his house.
They showed up and all three of them got the nephew out of the
apartment.

This mess has really put patrick on edge. Its been a hard week for
him. The nephew went and called all of the rest of the family and told
them that Patrick had lied about the whole thing and pushed the nephew
first. So now Patrick has everyone but his sister and brother against
him. When we were talking with Patrick about the whole thing he kept
telling us that he felt like his house was contaminated and that it
made him feel uncomfortable. We offered and then had a blessing on the
house! Patrick really felt the spirit there! that was a really special
experience.

We went over to Patricks again Sunday evening and his sister came by
to talk about what had happened between him and the nephew. They began
discussing what Patrick was going to do with the drug plants in his
apartment. Turn out Patrick had left the plants on his back patio and
was going to bring them to the police and have them analyze it then
bring the police to his apartment to look for more drugs. His sister
was really scared. (turns out like half of Patricks family lives in
the same building...) Patrick had, at this point, talked himself up
into a fit and started spouting off about how he doesn't care if the
rest of the family ever comes around to liking him again. He was done
with them telling him that he needed to house the nephew and then all
the other problems the nephew had caused Patrick.

In wanting to defuse the whole situation we shared a message about the
family and how it is the most important piece of our lives and that it
is a gift from god. That we want to live forever with our family and
that we should always try to fix our family relationships. At the end
of our message we challenged him to pray about if he needed to go to
the police and involve them in the whole dispute. The next morning we
got a text saying that he had decided to give the plants back to his
nephew and not go to the police. I am not saying we solved the problem
and I am not saying that Patrick would have been wrong to go to the
police. I just hope that we did the right thing and that he can still
have good relations with his family.

That was our week! We joked that we were on vacation in Toulouse haha.
Patrick still plans on being baptized on Saturday! :) Your prayers are
always welcome! Thank you all!

Avec amour,
Elder Keller

this is a timelaps that I took on my Ipad of Patrick teaching us how
to make Ratetoui!

July 6th letter from Grant

Sent: Monday, July 6, 2015 2:55 AM
Subject: Bonjour

Bonjour! Our week went well! We had an exchange with the district
leader and we spent some time less active hunting. The city itself it
being prepared for the greatest festival to have ever embraced the
tiny hills of Rodez. The Tour de France is coming. The city has
decided to hold some sort of party, festival, cheese tasting, free
band concert, or a cook off contest every single day of the week
leading up to the Race. The city has actually torn out chunks of
sidewalk and has put in large signs that show where the bikers will be
coming through. I haven't seen the city in such a buzz. All of the
park people have been putting in extra flowers and pruning all the
trees and bushes. They even have a little white train that takes tours
of the city! The Tour de France gets here on the 18. The day of the
baptism! So we may not see the bikers come into Rodez but we will see
them leave the next morning as the start the next leg.
It will be interesting trying to do missionary work around all of the
extra people. I think in some sense it will be good because just
having more people in the city makes it easy to contact and find
people. However, those people are not likely to become investigators
because they are tourists....

Patric Chambeau! He is still fixed for the 18! We actually saw him
every single day this week! We were able to teach a lot this week.
In fact, when we taught missionary work we asked him if he knew anyone
that he would want to talk to the gospel with. He told us he had a
work colleague that he could have over for dinner and we could talk
about the gospel after dinner! Then his sister came down from upstairs
and we taught her a lesson! We explained what the book of mormon was
and bore testimony about how it has changed our lives. Before we
finished the lesson Patrick bore testimony about how he always feels
the spirt when he is at church or around us! That was such a special
lesson for me. I cant explain how happy I was to see that Patrick
understood what we had been teaching him. He said the closing prayer
and thanked heavenly father for the missionaries and for Gods gospel
on the earth. I dont think I could have said a better prayer then he
did.

This sunday was Fast and Testimony meeting! We had already taught
Patrick about the fast and when we told him he could bear your
testimony Brother Pascalin(the member who has befriended Patric the
most) got up and bore his testimony on Jesus Christ and how Christ's

atonement had changed him. When Pascalin sat down Patric got up and
recounted his story of how he met the missonaries. How he was pressed
for time but when we contacted him he felt a "chaleur" in his heart
and he stopped. He said he felt something in him while he talked with
us. A week later Elder Gossel and I dropped off cookies at his house.
He said that he was intrigued by our kindness and thats why he fixed
the first meeting. I was most touched during his testimony when he
said that he felt the exact same chaleur in his heart. He said he
didnt know what it was but that he had never before experienced it. As
we answered his questions over the corse of the next couple meetings
he said he felt the chaleur grow stronger and stronger. He bore the
last couple lines of his testimony that he was so happy to be in the
church of the truth; with real friends and love. I will never forget
this man. He is always complimenting us on how nice we are and how we
are always helping others yet, I feel like its the other way around.
Patric brings food to almost all of his neighbors. He bottles Jams and
gives them away to all the members. He gave some spanish guy a 100
euros because the guy told Patric he couldnt get back home. Patric
goes and gardens his moms yard once a week on top of school and work
and meeting with the time munching missionaries in Rodez. I don't
think I could have a better example of Pure christ like love in my
mission. The man always looks to help others. I think I have written
down more about my experiences with Patric then anyone else. I thanked
heavenly father this week for letting me be the missionary to meet
this marvelous man. Because honestly, I feel like he was prepared.

Seour Gill is doing good too! we have been helping her prepare to
brake the news to her children that she got baptized. She has been a
little stressed about that talk but what seem to be the most
comforting supports to her are the members here in the branch here. I
have learned why it is so important to have members who are active in
the lives of your investigators and in the lives of recent converts.
If you lack members in the lives of either of them I don't know how a
new convert could have gotten to baptism or how they would make it
long afterwords.

I love this city! I love how dedicated the members here are to helping
others and being a blessing to others. I love my family back at home
that is supporting me. I love that so many of my friends are leaving
on missions and get to have such Wonder missionary experiences! It
really is like nothing I have ever done before in my life. A great
work and a wonder is coming about and to just be a part of that wonder
is such a blessing from god. I could not have asked for a better life
:) I love you all! have a great week!

Avec amour,
Elder Keller

June 29th letter

Patrick is doing wonderful! Thank you for asking. We moved the date a
week back to the 18. He is understanding everything and has accepted
the word of wisdom and the law of Chastity; so it looks like we got
two of the three biggies out of the way. Today we are going to talk
about tithing. So prayers that this will go well, not that we are
worried! Just that this lesson always brings interesting questions :)

We got contacted by a really cool new investigator the other day! Her
name is Cyndia, she is 29 years old and wants to learn english! We had
our first english lesson with her and someone we thought was her
boyfriend but turns out to just be a Pot (that means a person who you
are friends with and is like three years younger then you) During our
second English class she asked what we do! We explained that we were
missionaries and then we talked about all the fun stuff we do and
right after that her eyes got really big and she asked if our church
had a Choir! We said we were actually in the process of starting a
ward choir and she went and told us a ten minuet story about how she
was in a church choir and how she felt so awesome and just loved
it.....until the church told her she had to be baptized to continue
singing. So she left. She really wanted to come to church and learn
more about us! So while we we walked around town we discussed all
about Joseph smith and missionary life(she really wanted to be a nun
at one point in life for some reason)  and at the end of our second
meeting we fixed her a car ride to get to church! At the end of
meeting we met up with more of her friends and then she never came to
church. She said she slept in but we are worried that one of her
friends told her a bunch of anti doctrine. We will see. She was super
excited to get to know us so hopefully we can fix another meeting this
week. If not for church for english ;)

On saturday this week we went to eat at the branch presidents house.
He lives like forty minuets by car so we had the Albi Elders come up
and go with us to their house.
Well, the Albi Elders GPS didn't work so we drove around for 2 hours
until we showed up at the Branch presidents house. We ate quick and
left a quicker spiritual thought. Then helped him move some furniture.
We got home at 11! a half hour later then bedtime for us Elders so
waking up and having energy for church Sunday was not easy! hahaha But
all is well, We look forward to teaching Chambeau more and hopefully
Cyndia too!


Avec amour,

Elder Keller

Grant's letter June 22, 2015

Sent: Monday, June 22, 2015 8:37 AM
Subject: Bonjour

Hello, and welcome to another week of "Breaking Babalon" where elder Keller and his new companion have to try and contact French people in the middle of the biggest music festival of the year. That's right, this week Every city in France participated in a festival called "Fete de Music". Bands are asked to come, set up, and start playing in the middle of the city. They play all evening and late into the night. While the bands play all of the bars and pubs bring out Kegs of beer and set up little booths in the street to provide extra entertainment for the crowds. Yes there were fights, yes there were people throwing up, and yes It was really hard to sleep. wooo go france

Patrick is doing just awesome! We fixed his baptismal date for the 11 of July and have started the needed preparations to get him baptized!!!! AHHH its happening so fast! He really likes going to church and hanging out with the members. In fact the members have started inviting him to activities and helping him prepare for his baptism! Honestly I couldn't have asked for better members! We are a little behind on the lessons that he needs to be taught but we think we can crank through them soon. Plus one of the members has explained quiet a bit to him about some of the more sticky stuff like word of wisdom and tithing. Patrick really likes to make food for us! He made us one of the best Quiche! I think I have ever eaten (besides grandma's!!!!) and he makes us take his food home with us! haha He made a super good apple cake the other day too! oh, the benefits of teaching a chef in training!

Augustina Gill has been doing good too! She has been preparing to get her patriarchal blessing and going to the temple. She was asking questions about the gathering of Israel and who the 144000 were so we got to explain all that. Honestly, I didn't even know who the 144000 were until she asked. Probably a good question for grandpa Keller! 

So, other then trying to contact people while the music party was happening life has been pretty good. Just running around doing missionary work! Elder Pittsenbarger is interesting. He is Really into baseball. 

We haven't been teaching as much since elder gossel left and I dont know if that is because of the changing of companions or maybe just that we haven't been doing something right. Anyways, we will try and figure it out. France is still  a really exciting place even after 9 months. 

If you need anything or want to hear about anything let me know! 

Elder Keller

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