Week #13 Nov 24, 2014

The church building in Chapeco

At the bus station taking a 5 hr bus ride to Chapeco for zone meeting

So cars here are the tiniest things in the world.... This is one of the most common "trucks" haha. But also drivers here are absolutely insane! I feel like im gonna die every time i get in a car with a member. We have recently figured out the bus system which is so nice! But it literally feels like a ride at disney land! Pretty fun actually haha

Our apartment building on R. Barao do Rio Branco in Pato Branco, Parana

Outside our apartment

The view from our apartment of Bato Branco

Lunch of rice & noodles

Family, theres two UW fans in my zone!!!!! how awesome is that??? hahaha it was so awesome! I was reppin the UW tie at our zone conference this week, which was totally awesome, and right after it ended this sister came up to me and said "go dawgs" and it was probably one of the greatest moments ever to find a husky fan in brazil. the other kid isnt necessarily a fan he just lives there but still pretty cool! but anyways the elder is from bonny lake next to puyallup and the sister is from east washington and still isnt a coug fan. Props to her on that! But it was so awesome to finally talk about football after eight weeks even if it was with a sister haha.

But anyways this week was super awesome! We had a zone conference in Chapecó and it was totally awesome because the spirit was really teaching us a ton as a zone. This zone has been the cruddy zone for basically the past three years so president silva is trying to get it up and running again because four years ago it was the best in the mission! I dont have a lot of time as usual but a big part of what we talked about was our relationships with our companions. And i found out a ton of things i was doing wrong as usual haha. But they talked about really talking to your companion and getting everything out and communicating and i of course always thought that was just really dumb... But on the 5 hour bus ride home we actually had a really good comp to comp talk and it totally helped! we found a bunch of little things in the companionship that could be possibly holding us back from feeling and having the spirt with us and were now really communicating and growing closer! Elder Hess is a very good guy and we are learning a ton from each other.

But Candida is doing well and goes a few days without smoking every once in a while but shes going to church which is good! We're going to stop by her house tonight and see how things are going.

Gabriel is so awesome! The kid is ridiculous! He is walking at least 20 minutes to the church every other day to have a lesson with us cuz he doesnt think his parents want us to teach in his house. And he's at church every single week! The kid is awesome. We were teaching him the other night and we were walking home with him cuz it was like 8:50 and i asked him if he wanted to stay in pato branco after school and he was like yeah but im gonna serve my mission first. haha the kid is awesome! he was asking if he could go on splits with us to see how missionary life is. But we have stake conference this week in chapeco and a conference with elder costa the area president this week so he is getting baptized on december 6! Im so excited! We have taught everything and now we just meet with him to see how things are going. But you really learn to love your investigators and just get super excited for them when they tell you how they are feeling the spirit! I hope i get to have this opportunity with a lot more people on my mission.

But as with other investigators we technically have a lot but they really arent progressing. A few of them will read the book of mormon but to get someone to church is the hardest part.

But the mission is awesome and i love and miss you all! Especially my dad on his birthday!! Happy Birthday dad!

Elder Keller