Letter from Sister Keller :)

Kia Ora!

Fun fact of the week:
Kiwis don't celebrate Halloween :(
(Oh yeah by Kiwi I mean the people of New Zealand, not the cute fluffy birds. Though I highly doubt they celebrate Halloween either)

It was transfer week! And... nothing happened haha. Sister Ieremia and I are still in Opotiki and still working hard! It was a super rainy week so that kind of slowed down work because rain=cold and neither sister Ieremia or I enjoy walking in the cold. Not too much has changed. We only get 1-2 cockroaches pr week instead of night (nice), and I can legally drive on the left side of the road (also nice).

Today for P day we got to go to Tauranga (which is about two hours up the coast) and I am still in awe! I could probably write for an hour about how strange it is to be back in a city. In New Zealand they call small towns with few people the Bush, so the whole time we were walking around the city we totally looked like we were lost country girls haha. I forgot that there was more than one lane of traffic, and that houses can have multiple floors. We ate at an actual restaurant and came in through the back door hahaha. It is so cool to be in the city but I also love Opotiki and never want to leave so... good thing I have 5 weeks left before transfers haha. We got to hike this mountain that's right by the ocean and it was super fun! The best part was as we were hiking, I smiled at everyone and said good morning and when they'd look back at me, they'd first look at my face and then right to my name tag. How cool it is to be a representative of Christ!

One cute thing this week that happened was we visited this Samoan family in our ward because Sister Ieremia speaks Samoan and can communicate with the parent. I understand less than nothing, so I end up talking to their kids. They have three girls who love to swing dance with me and it's the cutest thing. The youngest is about three and always gets really excited whenever she sees me. Apparently the other day they asked her who her sisters were and she started off with "Sister Keller.." before naming her other sisters. My heart melted a little bit.

Also I have a big surprise.
I participated in an athletic event !!!!! I know I'm just as surprised as you are. What happened was Sister Ieremia wanted to play (touch) rugby, and I was completely content to read Jesus the Christ from the sideline (which is an amazing book btw yous should read it and then discuss it with me), but they needed another player so I ended up playing! I still have never touched a rugby ball, but I did a really good job running around and pretending I knew what I was doing :)

Okay I'll end with something a little more spiritual haha. We had two referrals from our branch president, and we've taught two lessons with both which is awesome! One girl we're teaching is super interested in the Book of Mormon and is progressing really fast. She asked us about the 10 commandments so we taught her that lesson, even though it's usually one of the last things we teach. Afterwards she told us she wanted to write them on a big sheet of canvas so that she would never forget them. It was so sweet and just such a testimony to me that Heavenly Father really is preparing people to be taught and he will guide us to them so they can find the happiness and peace that they are searching for.

Alofa atu!


Sister Keller

Mom and Morgan Letter Exchange This Week

Hello Sister Keller!

Can you believe another week has flown by??  

Monday I spent a lot of the day just putting things away on the storage shelves!  Holiday stuff is in its room and food storage in its place.  Now laundry room cabinets, which will involve tearing up some tile.  I'm hoping Ethan will demo day it for me :)  We'll see.  I have a lot of touch up spots to still fix and repaint, tile to put in and hooks to hang, but it is getting there.

I'm doing the book of Mormon Challenge and highlighting all of the parts about Christ.  It reminds me a bit of seminary last year when we ( our class) marked all the different names used for Christ in the Book of Mormon.  there were 100 names and they were used over 3,900 times!  Very much another testament of Christ.

The past couple days I've been doing family history again.  Getting name ready for my family to go do a bunch of sealings in November.  My parents friend Gary Flake is a sealer at the Bountiful Temple and he's going to officiate.  My mom is excited.  I need to remember to invite Grant and Kirsten, I'll do that right now :)

I just love all of the pictures.  We took a family picture for you on Sunday so I'm getting that printed and will mail it to you!  Anything you need for Christmas?  I'll start putting that together pretty soon too.

Um, what else.  Tuesday night was a bridal shower for Hunter Jensen's fiance Julia.  She's super nice and seems super down to earth.  Stacey W had the shower and Jody Stratford arranged the food and it was all wonderful!  I even ate good with only a little bite of sugar!  Wednesday I met with the cabinet folks again for final measurements and went to lunch with Jennifer and Stacey.  Ran into Sherry Bronson and her friend.  Thursday I went to the temple with Suzie, we just did initiatories.  They have changed the initiatory area in the temple, it is very nice and they have more rooms and more seating with the new design.  It's very beautiful.

I have been thinking about your weight question this week.  I guess a good gauge would be how are your clothes fitting you?  If things get uncomfortable then you may want to cut out some sugar.  I know harder to do than to say.  I weigh 150 lbs, but you are taller and we have totally different body shapes so I don't think it is a bad weight for you, but if you've put on 10lbs in 2 months, that is more what to be aware of.  So check again in two months and if you have put on another 10 lbs lets talk about some things to try.

 This nutritionist that I'm working with is all about clean eating.  So no white bread, pasta, potatoes, really no high starch foods. sweet potatoes and sweet potato fries are fine if not cooked in grease. And for 4 weeks really no sugar.  Breakfast is the biggest meal so I eat eggs and toast or eggs and oatmeal with a cup of fruit.  I have some kind of protein three hours later so i don't get too hungry before lunch.  like a clean protein bar, cheese stick and lunch meat, jerky and fruit, etc.  then I have a fruit and veggie and protein and grain for lunch.  turkey sandwich with either mayo or cheese but not both, salad with chicken, which is what I usually eat, I do a sprinkle of cheese instead of dressing.  three hours later little snack like before and then dinner is half a plate of veggies, 1/2 cup of grain and 1/2 cup of meat.  (chicken, fish, turkey).  Tomorrow I get my first steak in over 6 weeks!.  Then a fit and light greek yogurt between 8:30-9:30 and then no more eating.   It has really made me aware of how much snack foods I would eat.  

I love that you are getting up and exercising.  I have to lift weights 4 days a week because muscle helps tighten your skin and burn food all day long.  I could send you some of my workouts, but there aren't pictures. I'm always looking up how to do the exercises. hahaha  Where you probably don't have weights maybe find some exercise bands so you pull against your body.  Or take up running.  You kids run and extra weight falls off of you.  Guess that's not much of an option if your comp doesn't get up to exercise though.  Grant only had a couple companions that wouldn't get up and run in the mornings.

Again, this is not being critical at all!!!!  This is just stuff I am doing right now that might give you some ideas!  I don't think you look at all bigger in your pictures so I'm definately not worried.  Love, love, love you and you should know I'm not one to worry about being skinny or dieting.  I don't always think those are good things either.  Moderation and joy in all things ;)

Love you tons my beautiful princess daughter of all kingdoms and dreams,

mom




That's so awesome you're doing the BOM challenge! I asked my mission president about it and he said I should focus on PMG instead of reading the BOM straight through so I'm going to do that and then hopefully afterwards I can reread the Book of Mormon :)

YAY i'm so glad yous took a family picture! Whenever people ask my about my family I just describe what everyone looks like haha. That's honestly all I want! I'm starting to put a package together for yous... just a heads up it's mostly chocolate because the chocolate over here is SO GOOD! Also what's the best way to send seashells?

I'm so happy Hunter and his girl are finally engaged! they've been dating for AGES now haha. How's Matts search for an eternal companion coming along? haha 

Thanks for all the nutrition advice! I could definitely find ways to cut back on sugar haha. The exercises are pretty good and sometimes my companion likes to run on the beach so that's pretty fun.

This week I had food poisoning and that sucked. Have you ever thrown up while having diarrhea? I would not recommend it hahaha

I'm glad everyones doing well! How are Ana and Ethan? Busy with school I bet haha. 

This has been the week of spiders and that was awful. In the baptismal font there were about 10 spiders ( I had the APs kill them because I'm too chicken haha) and we had spiders in our car and so many daddy long legs and I'm done with bugs! We've had less cockroaches so that's good. 

Oh yeah also can you do two small favors for me? Can you maybe possibly check to see if the BYU PR program emailed? It should be this week or next I"m just anxious to know. Also could you look at my email and find Isaac Frosts mission email? I forgot to bring it with me to the mission haha 

I love hearing from everyone!! I hope yous all have a super awesome week this weeK! What's everyone doing for Halloween? 

Much love!
SIster Keller

Sister Keller's Letter! Exchchchanges (sung to David Bowie's Changes)

Interesting fact of the week:
This area of New Zealand does not use shopping bags. Instead, to be more ecofriendly, you put all of your groceries in cardboard boxes and carry it to your car. neat

Kia Ora!

This week has been full of ups and downs! Saturday night I got food poisoning so yesterday and today i've been kinda chilling and hoping I get less sick. 

One of the highlights was exchanges! (as you could tell from my cleverly titled email) For the first day I was companions with Sister Vodo, who is from Fiji! She is absolutely crack up and loves to talk about everything! The next day I was companions with Sister Morgan (oh the irony) and she is the absolute best! (must be something to do with the name Morgan... haha jokes) She is from Utah and played soccer for Westminster University. So I totally didn't think we'd get along but honestly our personalities clicked super well and we chatted for hours as we walked! We got a lot of Area book work done because we had another set of missionaries so that was a bonus!

The second highlight was Ruths baptism! The beforehand was super stressful because we didn't really know what we were doing haha. The font heater wasn't working so we tried boiling water and throwing it in (which didn't work because physics... But we tried), and then we cleaned the whole chapel (it's tiny because we're just a branch) and then she was baptized!  She bore her testimony afterwards and it was so sweet. Also kiwis are awesome because we didn't even have to ask and everyone brought food for after the baptism. Such an awesome branch!

We found out that Pearl was baptized when she was younger, and when we told her she was devastated. She really wanted to be baptized with a full understanding of the gospel. But we are so happy that she has so much love and desire to learn about what we have to teach her! She is amazing and a perfect addition to the Opotiki branch. 

One thing I've been doing is whenever I find a scripture that is comforting I write it down in the back of my PMG, and I thought I'd start sharing them in my weekly email. This weeks is Alma 38:5

I don't have pictures this week because I didn't take any on my camera and I don't know how to upload pictures from my phone to the computer... so hopefully you'll get some next week!

Much love towards you all!!
Sister Keller 

Letter From Dad

On Mon, Oct 29, 2018 at 5:44 AM <troymkeller@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hey there!  Hope you had a great week and had the opportunity to teach some people.  It sounds like you’ve been having a lot of good opportunities so far.  That’s when missionary work is the best, when sitting across from some people and helping them understand their true natures, understand their purpose and how they fit into God’s plan. Pretty great stuff!

Mom and I went on a bike ride yesterday.  Yes, it was that warm even though we are almost in November.  It was probably almost 70 degrees.  I got a flat and had to walk part of the way back.  Poor me.   We spent part of the ride on the Farmington / Lagoon trail, which passes directly behind our house.  It was packed with families and professional photographers taking photos on the trail with the fantastic fall colors all around.  Seriously, there must have been 10 different groups.

Then on the way back, we saw lots of teenagers in different themed costumes.  One group wearing all referee outfits.  Mom was pretty sure it was for Sade Hawkins dances.  Our high school didn’t have one this year, but Isabell was going to the Viewmont one.

What else?  Things are going well generally.  Still meeting people in our new ward.  Did ethan send you a photo of the mural in our building to commemorate the founding of the Primary in 1878 in our ward building?  We have one of the oldest church buildings there is.  It’s been renovated a few times, so most of it looks like any other, but some parts have been maintained historically, including an old chapel area.  Very cool.

Love you, and hope you have a great week ahead.

Dad

 This week has been very stressful but also super great!

Man I miss Utah fall colors. That's one thing you don't get here in green green New Zealand. Haha I'm so glad Isabell is going to Sadie Hawkins! She is so social I'm not suprised she's already going toa  dance haha. And they were worried about not making friends! 

The mural is beautiful! That's so cool yous are in one of the oldest chapels. So gorgeous. 

Getting things ready for the baptism was difficult as, but it's accomplished so we're glad it's over! I'm technically not supposed to know this, but my trainer is super close with the AP so I learned that I'm staying in Opotiki for another transfer! I'm way excited because I love the members and all the people here. 

How have things been with Tanya? Also I saw Victor was in the picture mom sent last week so he came over? How are he and MJ? 

If I think of anything else I'll email you but that's all I can think of for now! Have a fantastic week!
Much love

SIster Keller

Mom and Morgan's Letter Exchange

Hahha thanks for finally writing!!
jokes I know things have been crazy and I'm glad things are calming down a bit!!

Man that is a lot of work! You need to send me pictures of the finished project!! I'm glad Ethan has been helping out. He needs a good workout ;) Jokes. Speaking of working out... So this mission is apparently well known for gaining weight because of how much members feed you. I was super worried because I don't want to get fat. So I've been doing a short exercise routine every morning. I have started to learn that no other sister missionary does any exercises in the morning, so I'm a little less worried now haha. My trainer always complains about how big she is (She's not that big she just used to be a super good soccer player and is kinda emberassed im in more shape than her) and I have to bite my tongue so I don't tell her she should just exercise with me in the morning haha. Anywyas i"m now 150lbs and I don't know how much I was before, so I'm hopign I can stay in that range.

I'm glad Ana has been working! She'll also be glad when she's looking for a Prom dress end of this year haha. I heard she broke up with her boyfriend. How has that been? Is she still using social media or have yous cut back on that?

Wow Tanya also has a boyfriend? Well I hope that ends well haha. Let me know if they get serious

If it makes you feel better I think about you and the whole family every day. I remember at the beginning of the mission I was super excited to email friends and hear from them, but now I just get so happy when I hear from you, dad, Grant and kir, Ethan, and Ana. I'm so grateful for all your support!!

So usually throughout the week I write down in my planner little things that I want to send yous on P day, but this week I had hardly any. Which I'm super proud of because that means I'm more focused on work than emailing yous! But here's the few things I do have written down
1. I've decided, after I graduate college I'm going to buy a little lamb and name it Jackie and have a pet sheep. I know that's so random but there's so many sheep on our long drives and they are just so cute!!! I really want a pet sheep and this desire may go away after I leave NZ but as for right now this is my plan hahahhaha
2. I know we've talked a lot about my sarcasm, and usually I see it as a positive thing but I'm realizing how negative it is. My companion and I have not been getting along super well because we're both defensive and sarcastic, so I've made a goal this week to cut sarcasm out of my life. I know sometimes it's humor but I think if I can just be positive I"ll have a better mission experience.
3. I have the most random memory of you in 5th grade during my maturation class. I just remember sitting down and you were wearing your big puffy coat and when I started to get a little weirded out about what we were being taught you just laughed and raised your eyebrows and I felt so much better. Sometimes I think of that memory and I am just so grateful that you have always been there throughout my life to comfort me and be there for me.

Sorry this email is HUGE so I hope it makes up for my lack of responses! Also tell dad to read his emails to you because I realize sometimes there's something I mean to send to the both of you but just send to one haha

I love you so much!! THanks for always being there for me!
Much love
Sister KEller

On Sun, Oct 21, 2018 at 8:24 AM carlin keller wrote:
Ah, my dearest Sister missionary, Miss Morgan Keller,

What a few weeks it has been trying to remember to write to you!  I have sent a couple post cards :)
It was sweet of you to hand write Akemi, she posted the envelope on snap chat and was supper excited :)

We are finally moved to the Italian house.  Always something new and different around the corner.  We liked the house, but it has grown on us even more since we moved in.  A few space issues I thought we'd have have been fine and a couple things we didn't notice are driving me a bit nuts, mostly because you dad needs everything unboxed yesterday and it's not going to happen just yet.  But we are getting close!  This past week we had a couple guys put shelves in the storage rooms and the garage which has really helped us finally move boxes around and unpack.  Ethan helped me paint said shelves for about three hours!  Needless to say that I'm done painting shelves for a bit, hahaha.  I just finished our closet this morning.  Tomorrow I can start to arrange the closet :)  We are very used to having drawers in our bathroom/closet areas and there are no drawers so I ordered a couple of dressers.  That should finish off the closet and we can start doing laundry, haha.  No I've been doing laundry.

This week was UEA and so the kids have had a couple days off to play and work.  Ethan and Dad got some fishing in on Thursday and Dad and Uncle Mikey are off fishing today.  Jack and Luke came down for a couple basketball games that Jack is playing in this weekend so Ethan went down with them overnight to watch Jack play ball.  Ana has been busy working.  She got a second job at a Halloween store for the month of October so between that and Lagoon she's been working hard. 

Tanya moved her stuff in a few weeks ago and seems to be doing well, she spends one night a week here and then stays at her boyfriends house the rest of the time (she says she sleeps on the couch).  oh, so yes, she has a new boyfriend.  His name is Taylor.  He owns a house and has a couple of roommates.

We invited everyone over for dinner tomorrow and to dedicate the house, should be a good day.  I just need to figure out something to make for dinner!  Kirsten is going to bring desert so I've been saving up a sugar cheat day so I can eat some!!  Very exciting :)

Last week was a crazy week.  Lots of good things, but lots of things that made me think of you or want to share with you.  I think I went through that with Grant too.  The first couple months I was super excited and supportive and then a little phase where I wanted to share things and he wasn't there.  Or things made me think of him.  It's all good, just know you are loved and missed, but that we are so happy that you have this opportunity to share the gospel and knowledge of Christ with others.  And a great way to learn about yourself and other people, to learn patience, humility and joy while serving God and having the Holy Ghost with you. 

Love you and pray for you,

mom

So I guess you got your phone.  Is there anything else that you need? 
In your letters to everyone it's ok to write things that are hard too, but share what you learn from the hard experience.  And everyone loves your letters!  Do let us know if there are any investigators we can pray for too.  You are awesome!

Letter From Sister Keller :)

Sorry these email titles are so boring, next week I'll do something big and exciting.

Random fact of the week!
Since NZ is on the other side of the hemisphere, I get to see all the constellations I never could before! It's cool to look at all the stars.

This week was so good! It was full of super busy activities

I had my first Zone Conference on Tuesday! It was so much fun. I got to see four missionaries from my intake (those who arrived the same week as me), and it was so nice to catch up with all the sisters from exchanges. I had to play piano which was a little scary, and now I'm regretting it because now missionaries can tattle on me so I'll have to play for future Zone conferences. Dang it. Other than socializing and scary piano playing, President Cummings gave a super awesome presentation on technology and it's advantages. Which brings me to my next exciting point...

WE ARE NOW A SMARTPHONE MISSION! That's right folks now I can use a super fancy phone (galaxy J4 for any of you who are curious enough to look it up) and we can share videos and in a few weeks go on facebook! What's most exciting though is that I can read all your emails throughout the week! This is awesome because now I can focus more on writing emails on P days than reading. We also get to use social media to contact investigators which will be so helpful, especially with those who are cautious around us in person. We're so grateful the Lord trusts us enough that we can use technology and further the work!

Saturday night we had an international night in my ward which was way fun! Me and two other American Elders did USA for our country. I made chocolate cupcakes (I couldn't think of what else was super American) and we did the line dance fishing in the dark! It was a hit, everyone thought it was hilarious. My cute companion did Samoa and their dance was amazing! The best thing about international night was we had 3 of our investigators come and we were able to talk to them in a super friendly environment.

Pearl is doing so great! We talked with her on Friday and she had a bunch of questions from the Book of Mormon and other books she got from the church open house. She also told us that there's a small chance she may already be baptized! In Hamilton, everyone is A member of the Church, and the missionary work up there is just reactivation instead of conversion. Since she lived in Hamilton she thinks she may have joined the church when she was 10 or so and not remember. But we couldn't find her records, so we told her that if after we call our mission president they're still lost, we can always rebaptize her. She got super excited and even told us she hopes they are lost so that she can get baptized after having a full understanding of the gospel. She is so awesome and we love working with her!

I hope all of yous have an amazing week! If you haven't listened to the Womens Session of conference I encourage you all to do so! There were some amazing talks and invitations that I hope you all consider doing! It's been so cool because in missionary work when we are working with an investigator we commit them to do something like prayer, and then promise the blessings we know will come from it. It's exactly like that in conference. President Nelson has given us many commitments and has promised the blessings we will receive when we keep those commitments.
I love this gospel, it is so amazing and has changed my life forever!
Alofa Atu
Sister Keller

1. Cutest Comp!
2. Straightened my hair (for once lol)
3. Gorgeous clouds on gorgeous beaches

Pictures to Morgan from Mom the Last Two Weeks

Ok here goes my excuse.  Morgan has always emailed around 7pm, yes always includes the first 4 weeks or so of her mission.  I know, double eye roll, lame.  So last week she emailed during General Conference and no I had not written to her, because I was thinking I would do it right after conference.  Troy who had to leave during the second session of conference on Sunday wrote his letter right before I was to take him to the airport and Morgan replied.  Yes, right, that was around 3pm!  And now I was driving Troy to the airport and couldn't even say hi before she got off line.  Thus no real letter last week.  I did send Scarlet Pimpernel Pictures and I did write her a post card. 

So Sunday October 14th comes around and we just finish eating and I'm moving stuff around so we can have some shelves put in on Monday and then I think I'll email Morgan, but my parents stop by to see the new house.  Boy I do not learn well or I'm just a really slow learner...  So by the time I get on and email her the following she is off.  I did send her pictures of Troy and I at Aspen Grove this weekend and another post card.  This week I'll write during the week so I don't get another sad letter from Morgan wondering how I'm doing. :(  Especially when so many things reminded me of her this week and I was continually tearing up!  Love that girl and I miss our weekly calls too.




Carlin Keller
Attachments
Sat, Oct 13, 11:51 AM (1 day ago)
to me

Dad and I went to an artistic retreat this weekend at Aspen Grove.  On the way home we stopped at the Argentine bakery 😊😊😊

Thinking of you 💗
Mom

Morgan Keller <morgan.keller@myldsmail.net>	5:12 PM (3 hours ago)
to Carlin

Awe that's way fun!

how has your week been? What's been new with you? 

President Nelsons talk on the womens session made me think of you when he told the story about the mom who knew the right times to look at her Sons phone so that she could understand what would be best for him. I know so many times the Lord has prompted you to look at Anas phone or go in her room and I know that you are in tune with the spirit and that is such an example to me! Did you have a favorite conference talk? 

Guess what? I'm the ward pianist! Hahaha. I just play the hymns from the simplified hymn book, but my companion is gracious enough to let me practice for an hour each day so who knows maybe when I get back I'll be good enough to play out of the actual hymn book! 

So I know Christmas is a ways away but I may know what I want... could yous maybe send a printed out picture of the family? I have some that you've sent me on my email but there's none of the whole family and I was hoping you could maybe send one!

I know I'm always asking you for things in my email every week so I hope you know I appreciate you so much as a mother and as a friend! i sorely miss our two hour phone calls and have teared up multiple times thinking about New York and other fun trips we've gone on. I hope you know that I feel your love and I have so much love for you I can never thank you enough!

If you ever have any questions, please ask them! I never know what to write about so much happens every week haha. 

Have a great week this week! Love you lots! 

Sister Keller

Are you still on?  

Sorry I keep thinking I'll write to you on Sunday and then stuff happens on Sunday!  My parents were over and my dad was helping us get the fireplaces working.  We attended our new ward today and it's in the original Farmington Church, where the primary was organized.  Pretty cool, there is a beautiful mural painted on the wall behind the pulpit in the original primary chapel.  

Dad said he sent a picture of percy with the flamingos.  Did he tell you that the day I put them out there Percy went running out barking at them until he got up close and realized they were plastic.  It was pretty funny.  Ethan catching those raccoons in our backyard has gotten him all worked up. Hahaha.

Loved your letter, hope you and your companion are doing well.  I love you tons.  Lots of little things have reminded me of you this week and I keep getting choked up!  

Oh, so tell me what to log into to see the other pictures you have uploaded.  I logged into you mission mail, but couldn't see anything.  And I guess you got my emails that the communications department is doing interviews before making final decisions on who is accepted into the program.  Bummer, you'll have to figure that out when you get home.  You could maybe email them and see if they could kind of defer your application until you get back...

Love Love Love ya

mom