October Happenings

Miles answered Morgan and they are going to Sadies together!  

Troy is in Singapore.

Ethan attended a BYU football game and hiked to the Y with the Tufts, they are sure good to put up with his goofiness : ).
Just the beautiful view as I head out on my walk one morning.

Ethan, Ana and I were home and everyone else was gone, so we headed out to the Movies on a Tuesday night and watched Hotel Transylvania 2.

Off to Texas over UEA to close on our house and visit the kids schools!  Exciting and nerve racking stuff.  We survived and have a house in Texas and Utah now.  The kids liked swimming in the pool, catching turtles in the pond and eating out.

Ethan has done a great job mowing and edging the lawn all to buy a turtle costume for Halloween?!?!?  Hmmm, yet it seems to be happy just like him.  Maybe a good fit and very roomy so maybe there will be future Halloweens in it.

Morgan had her orchestra concert Wednesday October 21st.  She is first chair in the viola section and did a wonderful job leading.  Beautiful.  Then she came home to find the turtle head... but with her orchestra blacks on she looks a little more like a snake!

Tanya and Victor

Ana had a tumbling sleepover this past weekend.  She had a lot of fun making pyramids and toilet paper mummies and balls.  I don't know that she ever went to sleep.  She came home saying she was going to mow the lawn and then I found her asleep on the couch, she took a good long 3 hour nap!  Too funny.

Sadie Hawkins Dance

Ethan went to a haunted house with his friends. 

 Sadie's, Morgan took Miles and they were Thor in their super hero group ;)

Grant's letter for October 19th with pictures : D

Sent: Monday, October 19, 2015 6:53 AM
Subject: More Nimes!

    It was a good week. Better then some of the other ones. We helped an
african lady in our ward move everything from storage up to her main
floor. It is incredibly ridiculous some of the things we keep and
carry with us in life.
    We contacted this guy named Jerome but when he found out we were
american he kept calling him self Geranemo (only the lord must know
how to spell this name) like the indian. Anyways, he is a practicing
Protestent, Buddhist, and something else that I had never heard of. He
is kind of a strange fellow but he totally came to church with out
being invited or anything! He even stayed all three hours of church!
However, he did need to eat an egg half way through sacrament meeting.
He just keeps boiled eggs in his pocket I guess; the dude had like 4
in there. Really nice guy, a bit weird, but said that if we had enough
"prof" he would totally get baptized.
    We started a morning text-o each morning; we just send out a verse or
two from the book of mormon and the members are just eating it up! We
have this one less active who has started sending us "words of wisdom"
in response to each book of moron text-o. They have absolutely nothing
to do with the text too! We have now fixed a total of three
appointments with old investigators and less actives thanks to this
morning text-o! So thats been super cool! Plus every time that the
members see us they thank us for the text! :P
    We finished Fabrice`s fence this week! Exciting stuff. I don't know
if that means that he is through with us or what. We will see what
happens this next week.
    We moved yet Another family out of the ward...sigh. We are going to
be the death of this ward.haha
    One of the less actives that the morning text-o has got us in contact
with is sister Hugon! We gave her daughter a blessing. She said she
woke up one night being chased around by evil spirits...We are going
back over Wednesday to weed her back yard. I am glad that we are going
to be able to help her :) She is really nice, kind of a scary looking
lady, but really nice. :)
    We saw Maria Mirkirtamov, the girl we baptized last transfer. She is
doing better. She smashed her jaw into the sidewalk trying to ride a
skate board and now she cant talk due to all the bandages and
gauze...kinda gross looking too.
    Ben will be happy to hear that We PLAYED BASKETBALLLLL! all five of
our investigators that said they would come bailed ten minuets before
but we ended up playing with the two priests and one deacon in the
ward. Plus another neighborhood kid and Shaun Bell, an early thirty
year old in the ward who doesn't like how long my arms are. (:
    Ill attach  the pictures that we took last P-day when we went to the
"Jardins de la fontaine"

Avec amour,

Elder Keller

Grant's letter in response to mine asking for some pictures of where he is living (I added my letter at the end).

Mom feel free to write me a whole essay chalk full of spiritual messages :)

I will be looking for the package :) Merci!

That is really cool that brother Howard has become reactivated! I never quiet understood why he was our basketball coach until dad explained it to me  :) Tell him hello and thanks for coaching me.

 My companions just put sugar and peanut butter into a pan with three different types of chocolate and put it in the oven...

We replaced our fireplace with...book of mormons

 This is our junk room...we dont have clips so we tied the dumb bell bar down with chord.

the mouse looking thing is the vacuums. 

Bathroom. Look! Im still using dads portable tooth brush closet! :D

 these are our bunk beds. All four of which aren't made. The top left actually falls through so its become a shelf for Elder Connells stuff.

Our hanger broke so I ripped it apart and jammed the individual pieces into this strange wall closet that we have. the one bar wasn't long enough so we used some shoes of an old long gone missionary and now it grips on well enough to hold suits. Easily the most closet space I have ever had on my mission :)

Love you all so much! dont laugh to hard :) Merci!

Avec amour,

Elder Keller

My letter to Grant last week, we had such a great stake conference and I sent him some of my notes and thought I'd throw it in here...

 Howdy Elder,

Here's hoping you had a wonderful week & found some new amis.   If you think about it take a couple pics of the town you live in and or your apartment... it's fun for us to see how you are living.  I did mail you a box on Wednesday - so hopefully next week sometime...

So we went down and closed on our new/90's home in Texas this week.  We stopped by the Jr. High and High School and Morgan was able to meet the choir and orchestra directors.  She thought they were great, but she still doesn't want to move.  I do think she'll be fine after she settles in, there might just be a lot of tears before that point.    So we headed back Saturday morning, we were ready since there wasn't any furniture to sit on in the house, haha - well, I was ready.  I must be getting old.  The kids did seem to enjoy the pool and pond.  

So we had a great stake conference this weekend.  I thought I'd share a few thoughts with you about what was shared.  The focus was on the Sabbath Day.  In a meeting a couple months ago a general authority spoke and said that the easy years of being a mormon are over and our youth need to be stronger and make the choice to be on the Lord's side.  He said to do this we need to be better at keeping the sabbath day holy and teaching the gospel more in our homes.  I think that is why the focus of our meetings were on the sabbath day and teaching and being examples in our homes.

That said.  These are a few highlights that I wrote down from stake conference.  

Pres. Zimmerman:

We need to a line our will to Gods:  if we do so we will have a greater sense for the sacred and sabbath, we will seek sanctification (as we actively seek we'll have the Holy Ghost continually with us), and it will invite revelation into our lives (we can't receive revelation from God if we aren't daily reading our book of mormon).

Sister Marcheski, who just got home from her mission a few weeks ago:

She talked that we need to daily make the decision to follow Christ.  One way we know we are following Christ is if we are able to discern the suffering of others when we are suffering.  I was really impressed with that thought, because that truly is when we seem to be the most self absorbed and selfish is when we are dealing with our own pain, sorrows, struggles.  It is much more difficult to see beyond our troubles and to help others, yet it often seems more rewarding when we are able to serve others during these hard times in our lives.

Pres. Clark

shared that obeying the Sabbath is an act of gratitude and that in the scriptures (old testiment, didn't get it written down) says that the promise that comes with obeying the sabbath is that the earth is blessed.  We need to be more aware of the earth around us and that everything is in Gods hands and we need to give thanks and be grateful, if we do the Lord/earth will provide for us.

He also quoted Brigham Young: by not attending our meetings, little by little the doctrine leaks from our hearts and we fall away.  The church renews us, another reason to keep the Sabbath and attend our meetings.

Pres. Castillo

talked about we are what we eat, physically and spiritually - how often are we partaking of spiritual things and recognizing them as spiritual.  And he talked about filling our clocks/time with spiritual things.

Then he went on that it's our responsibility to teach these things in the home.  He talked about trumpets playing and more than one playing out of tune.  which led into three sounds that are out of tune.  

The sound that is never played/practiced or there is no real sound: How can you/your children follow a Sheppard you don't know or a spirit you don't know.  If you never have spiritual moments at home how are you/your children suppose to recognize the spirit or our savior Jesus Christ?

The inconsistent sound (on again off again, church/spirit lowest priority or only when convenient):  kids learn by our actions, if we aren't doing spiritual things even when we don't want to or not doing them daily the kids will see that they aren't that important to us and they won't be to them either.  We must show sacrifice and consistency when no one wants to doit, when its not convenient, when others sleep, etc.

The contradictory sound: do we not attend our meetings, travel, listen to music that isn't uplifting, play with friends, etc on Sunday - do we not keep the Sabbath holy?

for a consistent sound spiritual things must be done and taught daily so the spirit can hear us.  If we study the gospel as a family everyday in the home our family roots will dig deep in the gospel.  

Sister Jowers, returned from mission to russia three months ago.  Shared how when she came home Pres. Castillo told her that her mission isn't the spiritual high of her life it needs to be her new base line.  I really liked that thought.  She went on to say being a member isn't meant to be comfortable or easy, which she learned as a missionary - mission isn't comfortable or easy.  and we need to continue to progress.  There is always more to learn.  She said we need to ask ourselves how we can start each day on a spiritual base line that builds off of our spiritual climax from yesterday?

Every day is a new day if we have a willing heart, the desire to believe and faith in our father in heaven.  then she went on to share some stories.  thought it was a great talk.

High school girl spoke about living here in Utah sometimes we are so used to the spirit that we don't even notice it any more.  Her example was taken from a talk by Brother Bytheway about driving around in a parking garage.  You think it's well lit, you can see where you are going and all the cars/parking spaces, but as soon as you drive out into the sun you are blinded by the light.  Yet you notice everyone who has been walking around in the sunlight is use to the light and doesn't seem to notice how bright it really is.  That sunlight is the spirit.  Sometimes we are so used to it being with us we dont' notice it or take it for granted.  We need to practice and pay attention and notice when we are touched by the spirit.

Ok, I'm done.  There was a little more than I thought to share, but there were really so many great messages last night and today.  And a lot of great stories shared.  In fact they asked Brother Howard to speak, he used to coach YM basketball when you played.  He has come back to church this year and just went through the temple a couple weeks ago.  He shared his journey today and it was really sweet to hear hear him tell his story.  

Love you,

have a great week.  If there are any names you'd like me to put on the prayer roll this week let me know, I'll be going on wednesday : )

mum

October 12th letter from Grant

Sent: Monday, October 12, 2015 6:08 AM
Subject: More Nimes!

I am happy that I get to stay in Nimes! I even get to keep elder
Connell! haha The elders in Montpelier have a baptism interview that

we get to go and do :) That will be a first! I have never done a
baptismal interview. I guess this is a real test of my French! :P

This past week was really fun. Monday we went guitar looking. There is
a guitar outlet here in Nimes with over 1500 guitars! I have never
seen so many stringed instruments. EVER! There are spots where you
cant walk anymore due to the excessive amount of Guitars in your path.

Tuesday we went on exchange with the zone leaders!!! oooooh Elder Shaw
and I stayed in Nimes. We got extra contacting time because no one
showed up to our Rondez vous... We did however Find Simon!

Simon is a collage student here in Nimes studying Music! He is the
lead singer for a local band called `Mo Fo Party Plan`. He made it
sound like they play Indie techno music. I wouldn't know though! We
showed him the church and explained stuff. He liked the genealogy
center and would like to research his ancestors. So, that might be
fun. At the end of our Rondez vous we brought out guitars and played
some music! That was exciting. Elder Connell beat boxed while we
played guitars. Honestly not a bad combination. :) Simon speaks some
English and he tried to sing in English and that was hilarious! He
couldn't think of what to say so he just started singing random
english words. They didn't make any sense but it reminded me of
hanging out with hunter ;)

Miguel missed one of our meetings this week but he called us back and
said he wanted to see us this Wednesday :) Other then that he seems to
be doing well. We have him reading in second Nephi :) What can I say?
He loves profound doctrine.

We contacted this African guy named John Francois and we ended up
taking him to the church and just showing him around! We've done that
a couple times now. Just pull someone off the street and show them the
church. We called up Brother Zogo and he came to help us out with the
Rondez vous! I love when members are cool enough to just drop
something and come help us out. Part way through the lesson Fr zogo
just started speaking african to John Francois. John Francois took a
book of moromon and Fr zogo took him home. Still have no idea what
happened or even if we are ever going to see John Francoi again.

We didnt go help fabrice this week. To many other things to do :( we
might not be able to help him this week either due to Ronez vous and
stuff. Sigh.

I am excited to do another Transfer with Connell and I am excited to
accomplish all the goals that we set for this transfer! We fixed a
goal to eat SUPER HEALTHY and to help us we planned out every single
meal for the week. When we were at the cash register and they lady
told us how much it all was Elder Connell got really stone faced and
didn't talk to me until we got home...We talked about it and fixed
goals for what we will and will not buy next week. :) all is well in
zioooOOON!

Love yall to the moon and back!
Elder Keller

October 5th letter from Grant

Sent: Monday, October 5, 2015 5:45 AM
Subject: Nimes week six

Well, this is week six with Elder Connel and week six in Nimes!

    Like normal we helped out Fabrice with his Fence and all went well.

Nothing crazy happened. The raging beasts were to busy foraging to
attack innocent missionaries. Oh, we literally built a gate door. I
have never needed to employ such skills until last tuesday haha. We
talked to Fabrice about coming to church or to Family home evening.
Then we talked about general conference! He said he would think about
it.

    Miguel! OHHH I wish yall could meet Miguel. We contacted him a week
or two ago and we finally got a rondez vous with him. We sat at one of
those classic outdoor French Cafés. Miguel is from Spain and has
Spanish roots. He moved to France for work. He is a street artist. He
makes art on the street and sells it and stuff. He told us that the
French government literally gives him everything he needs to live
apartment, food, food for dogs, the whole deal! So he does what he
loves and thats street art....Anywho, he has talked with and looked
into most religeons. Jehovas whittnesses, catholics, Protestants,
evangelists, muslims, Buddhists, we got a really long explanation from
him but all in all he hasn't looked into our church yet. Sorry, I
digressed again. We were sitting at one of those classic outdoor
French Cafés teaching him the Restoration. I don't know how but he
literally just understood everything. We asked him a couple questions
and it just all made sense to him! He even started expanding on what
we had just taught. Really cool.

    We invited him to go to General Conference with us! :D and he came!
We watched conference at Stephanie's house. Before we started
conference we followed up on the reading assignments that we had left
with Miguel. We asked him to read one chapter but instead he just read
the whole book of Ether! Good stuff. We were half way though
explaining what General Conference is when he started asking why we
needed prophets and stuff. Stephenie and Pujol(two members) tried to
help him understand the importance of a living prophet. I whipped out
Ephesians 4 where it talks about why we need apostles, prophets,
evangilists....up until we are all unified into the same faith. That
quenched his question and we booted up conference. And I kid you not
the Very first talk of Priesthood (I am not one hundred percent sure
why we were watching priesthood but I am not complaining)the first
talk of which was given by Niel L anderson, Niel usses the EXACT same
scripture in Ephesians! Same Verses EVERYTHING! and Miguel turns to me
with a "thats not even possible" look on his face and asks us if we
had already seen this. I responded no and Stephenie jumps out of her
chair and pretty much yells "THATS CALLED MODERN REVELATION!" Things
almost got out of hand. Gautier started dancing while he was sitting
on the couch and Miguel jumped out of his chair and said "thats not
revelation that was a coincidence, stuff like that happens all the
time!!!" and all of the commotion woke up my companion.

    After conference we fixed another Lesson with Miguel for tomorrow. We
talked about what he is looking for in a church and he said that he
thinks the real church of christ would be well known for doing
service. So its a good thing we don't have any programs like that in
the church. We will probably show him a humanitarian video put out by
the church and talk about temples because those make us very
different. I honestly really like this guy! Miguel is fun to teach and
easy too. Matt Bronson must just have the easiest time teaching people
down in Spain ;)

District meetings topic was about speaking in French twenty four
seven. Which is really hard when you have a third transfer companion.
But we have been speaking in French a lot more its funny all of the
little words Elder Connell has been learning. Its been really good for
us both though. This transfer has been interesting conference and
meeting wise. We have been introduced to a ton more rules in the past
couple district meetings and conferences and I feel like thats almost
all they are. I remember having super spiritual conferences that sorta
rejuiced your missionary envie.

Mosques...so we fixed a meeting with a less active who lives literally
across the street from a mosques. When we went it happened to be the
same time that all the muslims go to mosques. I was scared out of my
mind. We were surrounded by robes and foreign languages. wow

Turina family. Elder Connell fixed a rondez vous with a Tahitian
couple that just moved into the Branch. We went and worked out with
brother Turina. He also taught us how to box. So that was dope! After
the workout his less active brother in law came over and we got to
teach him. He has a sad testimony. He literally got baptized because
he prayed really hard during a rooster fight and his bird won. So he
got baptized....oh some peoples kids.

September 28 Letter from Grant

Sent: Monday, September 28, 2015 6:58 AM
Subject: Témoignage

Fabrice, we have almost finished his fence, it only has a little bit
left. While we were working on it Elder Connell spooked one of
Fabrices goats. The beast lifted its two front hooves into the air and
with its back feat started hoping up and down. When the miniature
monster was all the way up like that it was easily as tall as my
companion! Haha, Fabrice kept telling elder Connell that he needs to
give the animal a reason to have confidence around you and not scare
it. The animal started jumping towards elder Connell and he cried out
in English "I didn't scare your devil animal it scared me!" I told
Fabrice that Elder Connell was trying to sooth the beast in his native
tongue; he didn't seem to convinced. With Fabrice we talked about
temples and eternal families. It kinda interesting for Fabrice but he
wasn't super excited about it.

Hortense. We finally had a Rondez vous with Hortense, she showed up
thirty minuets late but thats just because shes african. That probably
sounds racist but Africans have no sense of time...Anywho, we brought
Axel to her house and she started talking about how hard life was.
Axel just started testifying about eternal families and how special it
is to have a child. That her child is a gift from god and not a
burden. It was really touching there were tears everywhere.

Daniel, Daniel is an old investigator that the missionaries hadn't
seen in a few years but we made contact with him and helped him cut
his bushes! French people have really strange bushes(feel free to look
them up on line tho) and we helped him cut the tops of the SUPER tall
bushes because Im like 6`2 and he is like 5`5 and a little fluffy
around the midsection. We read Alma 26 with him and talked about how
we need gods help in life. God is pretty awesome.

We moved someone into the ward this week! That was really good! She
doesnt have any kids nor a husband but we are always happy to have new
faces! Stephenie even took us out to eat at a CHinese Buffet! that was
top.

We had a zone conference this week in Aix-en Provence. Elder Adler
from the third quarm of the seventy was there. He challenged us bear
our testimony every day for thirty days and record it! Then we can see
at the end of the month how our testimony has grown :) and our
language skills. Ill attach one of the videos for y'all. I guess y'all
wont know what I'm saying but maybe you'll pick out a couple words :)

We have started working with a less active in the ward called Sandrine
Chapus. We had a Rondez-vous at the church Sunday evening with our Fr
Pujol. She told us about how its hard to come to church due to members
and things that they have said. We explained everything that she needs
to go to the temple. She fixed a goal to go to the Paris Temple when
it opens up and also to work through some problems with other members.
Progress :) She says she still likes to read the Liahona! :) good
stuff.

This week was better then some of the other ones. I finally feel like
we have everything under our belts and that we know whats going on in
the city. Anywho, hope yall have a great week with lots of chocolate.

Avec amour,
Elder Keller