A Skeleton Bag and a Leather Bag From Sister Keller

Fun story of the week: we went to the Hamilton gardens and there were these artsy words in Maori on the wall, but I didnt know what they meant so I took a picture with them (obviously). I learned later the words mean "a skeleton bag with a leather bag"... I think its something deep and metaphorical about humans carrying around bags made of animals? Anyways that's why you dont take pictures with random words in another language you dont understand, even if they are artsy :)



Kia Ora!



I'd say it's been a good week! Tuesday and Wednesday we were on exchanges, which was super fun! I love learning from my STLs, they always teach by example but are super nice to be around as well! Sister Rumsey had us go door knocking, which isnt my favourite thing in the world, but we found a less active Kiribati family so we're excited to see where that leads!



This week we have really been focusing on teaching members. In Hamilton, the best way to find people is by getting referrals from members, so by teaching members we gain their trust and help them understand what we do as missionaries. We have gotten a lot of very positive responses which is awesome!



Right now our whole teaching pool is kids under the age of 13, which has been interesting Haha. Most of them come from less active families, so we are bringing back less actives and teaching at the same time! It's been very good to teach kids, I've been humbled a lot :)



One story and spiritual thought I'd like to share happened this Sunday. So since we've been working with so many less active families, our main problem is getting them to church. So this Sunday we decided to do a musical number and invite them, in Hope's that it might motivate them to come. Well no one that we invited showed up, but what did happen was we found out that one sister who has been struggling was reached out to by our Bishop, and the Elders quorum helped her move into her new house. That made me think of a talk this last general conference called "For Him" by Joy D. Jones. Chocolate chip cookies and musical numbers aren't what will being people closer to the Saviour, even if they help for a moment. I just felt a lot of love for the people we are working with, and hope we can use the spirit to find the best ways to help them.



You guys are so amazing you don't even know it! Keep up the good work.



Much love,



SK



1. Artsy Maori words

2-3. I realize I send back too many pictures of my face... here are some cute ones from NZ :)

4-5. My fav crazy sisters!

March Happenings 2019

I went with my primary class to temple square in March.  The missionaries took us on a tour and showed us the film about Joseph Smith and the short films about family.  I think most of the kids enjoyed it, I did.  I had forgotten how many things they have to do and see on temple square.  Glad we went when we did.  They will be closing temple square for 4 years for renovations and they are tearing down some of the buildings and rebuilding them!

Everyone at Grandma's for dinner one Sunday playing bean boozled!

Troy was in New Zealand with Kim and Brett fishing for a week!  He wrote it all up so he'll have to post his write up and pictures on here too.  These are the photos he sent while he was gone :)

Ana and I made cakes for the RS Birthday/preparedness fair at Church. 

I copied these pictures of Grand and Kirsten off of their facebook pages.  They went up to Yellowstone with friends to go snowmobiling.  Looks like they survived the cold and had a wonderful time!  Happy 23rd Grant!

I also copied these pictures of Laila, they were just too cute not to post. 

How Ethan sits in the pillows on the couch.  And Happy 17th Birthday to the baby in the family!!  Can we believe that he is almost considered an adult!?!?  How the time has flown by.

We had Lesli and Ryan's family stay overnight on their way down to Moab for Spring Break, this was the only picture I took!  One of them left this beautiful drawing on the chalkboard...  We had our fingers crossed that they would drive a little safer than they were implying they would be.

Feeder fish and my mom sent a picture of lunch with some of her sisters and sister-in-law, Darline.

Ethan found water behind the yard and now he has really bright ideas about putting a pond in our yard now.  Of course we need a really heavy March snow!

The Adventures of Sister Keller and Friends

Fun fact of the week: they call sprinkles "hundreds and thousands" here in NZ. no tengo ni idea de porqué...

It's been a very busy week with very few exciting stories. So here are some highlights of the week :)

1. Monday and Tuesday I was very sick, so we weren't able to do much work. But I'm all goods now!
2. I played basketball in heels (adding onto the "things I never thought I'd do in heels" list a while back...)!
3. We thought our flat got broken into, but it was just the insulation guy haha. Didn't stop us from calling our poor District Leader...
4. We had an FHE with our recent convert family at the mission office where we watched Meet the Mormons!
5. The queue is broken at the OTC so a bunch of Spanish requests keep coming in. I talked to like 5 people in Spanish for the first time in a long time because I've been avoiding it, and my brain got a little frazzled.
6. I got a package with stateside peanut butter and cereal :))) (thanks mama you're the best!)

Kind of a cool story! About a week ago we were walking past this kid on a scooter and he said "are you guys Mormon? My mom used to be a Young Womens president. You should go visit her." Then he gave us his address! We finally got around to visiting the address on Saturday, and it's a less active family with one kid not baptized. They want us to start teaching them again :) I think these are the coolest stories, when those ready to receive the gospel find us instead of the other way around.

For my spiritual thought, I'd like to share 1 Nephi 11:16-17 which read
16 And he said unto me: Knowest thou the condescension of God?
17 And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.

I love these verses because Nephi admits that he is not knowledgable in all things, yet still he had enough faith to see an angel and receive revelation like that of his father, a prophet. There are times we feel like we dont have as much experience or knowledge as others, but that doesn't limit our faith or the miracles we can potentially receive.

I know this gospel is true, and am so happy and blessed to be a missionary!!

Much love,

Sister Keller

In my email caption, by friends i mean the different animals I met this week. Sleepy the hedgehog, Fonua the missionary, and Abbie the Frog :)