#69 December 26, 2015 MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well this week was also sweet! Like I said last year christmas in South America is a little different. They celebrate at midnight and open all the presents then. They have a big dinner and play games and then everyone has to leave the house and walk around the neighborhood and that is when Santa come by to leave all the presents under the tree. So when they get home Santa has come and they open presents.  

So we and all the staff got to have Christmas with President and his family and it was way fun! Presidents oldest son, Rafael came down from São Paulo and it was cool to get to know him. He served in the same mission ten years ago and was an AP as well so it was funny comparing stories and seeing what the mission was like in the time that he was here. Sounds like not a lot has changed! 

So we had a super good dinner and then we played a bunch of games with the family including another white elephant and that funny as usual! In Presidents version of white elephant you can steal presents from others and that really changes things up! 

The rule is that each present can be robbed only two times. So when it is your turn to pick a present you can choose to either pick a normal present or steal one that someone already opened. President jokes and says that it is the only day of the year we are allowed to break  that commandment. 

But we were there until 2 in the morning and then the next day was SKYPE DAY! That was awesome! As a missionary you dont really have christmas, it is just the day that you get to talk to your family! It was so awesome being able to see you guys all again! 

What I have realized as a missionary is that really the Lord blesses people so much as they serve missions! It is crazy! I mean I was just looking at my family yesterday and see how great everyone was. They are "prospering in the land" as the promise from the scrips says if we keep the commandments! And my family and I have been so blessed not just from my mission but from living the gospel. And just like Elder Uchtdorf says, it works wonderfully! 

But I am so thankful for the best family in the world! I love you guys so much! And I am thankful for both sets of grandparents that decided to stay strong in the gospel! You guys are the best! Love you all so much! Have an awesome new year! 

Elder Keller 

#68 December 19, 2015 Christmas Conferences/ Bad Haircuts

This week was probably the funnest week of my entire mission! 

So we have been planning the christmas conferences for about the past month. We split the mission up into three seperate conference and they were in Wednesday in Lages, Thursday in Itajaí, and Friday here on the other side of Floripa, on the Continent in São José. 

The week was awesome because we went with President and Sister to all three so I was able to see a ton of missionaries that i havent seen in a while! 

But the best part of the week was hanging out with President and Sister Silva! I love those guys so much! They are the example of what I want to be like in thirty years! 

The first conference to Lages is pretty far so we got to be in the car with them 3 and a half hours there, and 3 and a half hours back. Then to Itajaí it was about an hour and a half there and an hour and a half back. And man that was awesome! Fernandez and I just asked them so many questions! And they told us so many stories! 

But the conferences were fun! We rented some Xbox's and played kinect with all the misisonaries, and had huge ping pong, chess, checkers, and card tournaments. President dominates at everything... Literally no one could beat him in anything haha. 

But there are so many things i would love to write but i just dont have any time! But President and Sister are awesome. On thursday night we were coming home and they took us to an awesome steak house that is really famous for its burgers. Its called maderos and is SUPER nice! All the tables are made out of those wood peice tables like all the loggers make up in washington. I forgot the name but everything was also super expensive! 

And the Burger there was so dang good! I dont know if it is because it has been a year and a half since i have had a good burger but that thing was dang good! Then president ordered us these massive banana splits and we all felt like we were gonna pass out after eating. 

But a funny story about the week had to do with hair cuts... We slept with the secretaries (our wards are separate) all week so we could be closer to Presidents apartment. But on thursday night after Maderos we were cutting Elder Saenz here but in a hurry and Sierras forgot to put on the measurement. So when he went to cut he just cut a huge chunk out of his hair.... And the next day was the last christmas conference! haha So we figured if one was gonna go down we were all gonna go down! So all six of us cut a chunk out of the back of our hair as well! 

But the worst part about the story is that we were telling President and Sister about the story the next day and they started laughing and Sister Silva told us we should have called her cuz she knows how to fix it with make up and bled it in so you cant even tell. But she ended up helping us out afterwards and giving us make up to fix it all haha! 

But back to more spiritual matters, one of the biggest subjects we talked to them about over the three days was the simplicity of the gospel. You look ate people all searching for quick happiness and it just is not worth it! You look at President and Sister and all the happiness they have and the happiness of the missionaries they are leading and you just think about all these other people without the gospel and how much they are missing out on! Even members of the church that arent fully living the gospel! President and Sister said the other day that they love being Mission Presidents! If they got a call today being asked to serve another one they said they wouldnt think twice! 

I am so thankful for my mission and the best mission presidents for me in the world! It is gonna be hard to leave but everything has its time! But time here is flying by riciculously fast! 

But i love you guys all so much and hope you have an awesome week and that everyone watches star wars for me! haha but have an awesome week! 

Love Elder Keller 

#67 December 12, 2015 Investigator Updates

This week was great! We are starting to get somewhere with some investigators so I am really happy about that! 

First off the most amazing Mom in the world sent me this awesome 25 days of christmas package and we are loving it because of all the "Buddy the Elf" quotes that come along with it. Elder Hull the other american in our house and I have just been quoten up elf all the time! 

But I didnt talk a lot about our investigators last week so I'm gonna update more on that this week. 

First off Rubens is a total stud! He is learning how to study the Book of Mormon really well. He is using the footnotes and really studying and finding the doctrine for himself! We had a lesson with him this morning and he was just talking about how amazed he is with the change that has happened with him since he met the church and started studying the Book of Mormon. We showed him the quote in Preach My Gospel about how the true doctrine, when it is really understood changes our behavior faster than anything else that! 

It looks like Flavia is probably gonna come back as well! They were really worried because they needed to get a spot in the "creche" which is kindergarten here for Leticia their daughter so that Flavia could work as well and Rubens was praying a lot for that because it has been a year since Flavia has been able to work and it has been hurting for them. But this week the kindergarten called up and said she got in which was a huge answer to their prayers! So keep praying for them! 

We are teaching another couple whos names are Maria and Angelo. They both probably have 30 years. They are really awesome but really dont have time to do anything. Elder Fernandez was already visiting them for about 4 months when I got here and they had never once gone to church but were actually reading the Book of Mormon and understanding so they didnt want to cut them. But we finally ended up telling them to send us a message when they had more time for visits and to be able to go to church. So two weeks ago she called and said that we could go by and we went and talked about going to church and she said that she would go. (I forgot to mention all of this in last weeks email) And they ended up going and it was awesome but it was just this week that we found out the cool part. 

Maria told us that they got home from helping their sister out in the hospital at 4:30 in the morning 2 sundays ago. That was the Sunday they said they would go to church. So before going to bed, she and Angelo knelt and prayed and said, "Heavenly Father, if this really is the true church you have to wake us up tomorrow morning at 7:30 so that we can go". So three hours later without an alarm or anything she waked up and looks at the clock and it says 7:30. 

So she went to church, loved it and said that now there two goals are to get married and to get baptized. Here summer for schools is starting and they had full time jobs and were going to school at night until 10:00 and that is why they never had time. But now school is out and during this summer they said they are going to do everything possible to get ready to be baptized! 

They go to Xanxerê this week to visit family and come back in the beginning of January so we will see what happens with them! 

But there are a few other couples who we have started teaching and it is funny because every person we find always has problems. WE ALL have problems. From the richest of us, to the poorest, it doesnt matter. But the Gospel cures it all if we just make the hard choice to trust in God and try to live it a little bit. I look at the difference between Rubens and some other couples we are also teaching who are not progressing. 

Rubens has changed one hundred percent! He is saving himself from divorce, fixing up his relationship with everyone at work (he was getting close to getting fired) reading the scriptures every day and he is so happy and he tells us that every time we go ever there! 

There is another couple though that about a month after we started visiting the wife found out that her husband was cheating on her. And it devestated her and it turned into a really ugly situation. And there are quite a few that we have started teaching and they just dont want to follow the Gospel and you just know that all the problems they have are just gonna stay the same. Nothing is gonna change until we start to want to change it! 

And a lot of the times to take that first step is really hard. But I dont know how to explain it better then Alma does in Alma 32. If we just give the Lord a chance he is gonna show us that he is there and that he has got the power to help us with everything in our lives! Work, school, family whatever! 

But anyways I am thankful for the best family ever and parents who have always taught me to live the gospel. I would be so done for if i was alone because i dont think i would have the sufficient faith to want to try the whole "church thing" out. To come on a mission and find out for myself. But God shows us if we want to know for ourselves! That is the one hundred percent truth! 

But I love you guys so much and hope that everything is going well! Have an awesome week! 

Elder Keller 

#66 December 5, 2015 Laboring in the Vineyard

Alright this week was awesome! We had a really great training on Friday again on how to work better with members because it is the key in our mission. We are busting our behinds off here to try to find people and change the mission but we have come to the conclusion that it has to come through the members. The training went really well! 

We tried to pass to the missionaries that we need to be more bold in our invites to members, in every opportunity we have to teach the members we have to invite them to do something like it says in chapter 11 of preach my gospel. In the beginning of my mission my lunch messages were weak and they didnt do anything to really edify the members, but now we are trying to really leave message that will help the member feel the spirit, and then have a natural desire to act and go share the gospel. In PMG it says that doctrine when it is truly understood will change behavior faster than anything else and that has been Presdent Silvas focus his whole mission, to teach us doctrine. So as missionaries we dont have a lot of authority when it comes to the wards but we are aloud to teach the doctrine that comes from  the scriptures. We have been praying to find inspiring messages about missionary work and it is ridiculous how many you can find. There are so many great ones. I love the scriptures! 

I was studying Jacob chpt. 5 the other day and I was thinking ah this is too difficult to understand in portuguese so i moved on to chapter 6 and when i got to verse three it put me right back into jacob 5 and it turned out to be an awesome study! 

Jacob chapter 5 talks about the parable of the Lord and the Vineyard. I love how in verse 47 it shows how sad the Lord was that he lost the vineyard again and he asks, is there any more i could have done? Then it goes on to explain how the Lord decided one more time to go down into the vineyard and nurture it again. But it would be the last time. Then I went to D&C 101:55-58 and there we learned that because it was the last time the Lord was going to pick the best to go down and accomplish the work! 

In verse 55 it says that we were the WARRIORS in the pre existence! We were the strength of the Lords house. And something really cool is in section 103:21 that explains to us that the servant that the Lord commanded to go grab us and take with him to the vineyard was Joseph Smith. In section 138, Joseph F. Smith explains in the vision he saw that we were being taught our first lessons before we came. We were specifically prepared to come down here and work in the Vineyard with the Lord and help him to make it good again! And we were trained by Gods to be able to accomplish that! 

So we gotta make sure that we are always trying to share the gospel because as Joseph Smith said it is our most important duty! We gotta bring as many souls back to our Heavenly Father as possible! 

But anyways I love the scriptures and I am so thankful for so many examples in my life of people who study the scriptures and love them and treasure them! Kevin W. Pearsons talk is powerful and we gotta follow it! My dad sent me an email telling me to read it for the third time on my mission and i am glad for that! We gotta read the scritpures so that we can know the mysteries of God for ourselves! 

Elder Sierras, the General Secretary here, and I had an awesome experience this week. We were studying a topic in the scriptures and we had a question and we wanted to ask President Silva about it so we went in his office and asked him. We didnt tell him about the scriptures that we were studying but we just asked the question. And it was hilarious because he kind of went off onto a different subject and we were bummed because he wasnt answering directly but then he said lets open up a random scripture and see how we can relate it to our mission here. He closes his eyes, opens up his book of mormon and picks the exact scripture that we were reading right before entering into his office! And we didnt say anything before hand! 

Sierras and I just looked kind of shocked and we told him what just happened and he just kind of responded, "see what i mean?" haha. But i just re read the story in my email and i dont have a lot of time and just realized it didnt make a lot of sense but oh well! The mission is awesome and the things that we are allowed to learn out here are incredible! I love this place! 

Rubens is great and is fasting this week so he can get his day off work as Sunday! And I think Flavia is gonna come back! they just gotta get enough money for her to buy the ticket back! Super happy! They are the ones that are progressing the most! 

But i love you all, and hope you have a great week! The Gospel is true and if we do our best to follow it we are happy! And it is as simple as that! 

Elder Keller 

#65 November 28, 2015

This week was super fun! So Dad and President Silva have the same birthday, pretty crazy! But anyways we planned a surprise birthday for President this week and it was awesome! We talked to his daughter Rebecca, got the keys to his apartment, and rebecca got them out of there house so we could go in and decorate it with christmas stuff, put the cake, sweets and presents into place and waited. 

We got totally freaked out because their son Renan got home before they did and took us by surprise haha. But anyways President and Sister Silva got there and loved it! We got their favorite wedding picture that they have, took it to an artist in the center (which is a really cool place kind of like pikes place market) and he made a painting of it. We then got it framed. 

But it was way fun! President pulled out his mission box with all the cool things from his mission 30 years ago. He showed us his scriptures from his mission and dang the guy knows how to study! I hope to be able to know the scrips like he does one day. 

Also this week we have been planning the christmas conference and getting everything ready. We are going to do a white elephant party with all the missionaries and play a bunch of games. Make some funny videos and it is gonna be fun! 

Flavia left for Fortaleza this week and we pray that she comes back! Their relationship got a lot better! And I think she will come back! It is awesome how devoted Rubens is now. He is always reading the book of mormon and the bible and really getting it. He is one of the best investigators i have had with respect to studying and applying the book of mormon into his life. He is doing great! 

I read a really cool talk a week ago by Elder Christensen titled, "Seven Lessons in Sharing the Gospel". AWESOME TALK! He explains very simply how we can share the gospel in our busy day to day lives. He says, the commandment is to share the gospel, and if we all really believe in 1 Nephi 3:7 like we say we do, then we know the Lord will prepare someone for us to share the gospel with. It shouldnt be the responsability of the missionaries to find people. The mission president has the keys to baptism, the Stake President has the keys of missionary work. If everything was perfect we would just be teaching. But it isnt that way so we do everything possible to find as well! 

But it is not as effective! The talk speaks about marking a date with the Lord to find someone before that day, and doing everything possible as a member to fulfill that goal. Because the Lord wants us to find people! He wants people to come to the church so he is gonna help us out! 

But im out of time. Hope you guys have an awesome christmas season! Its the most wonderful time of the year! love you all! 

Elder Keller 

#64 November 21, 2015 Silva- Learn the doctrine for yourself!

This week was awesome but super tiring! But another set of transfers are over and everything went smoothly so its all good! 

On monday as usual we stay with the group that is going home and take them out to lunch in a nice restaurant in Floripa, and then at night we all go to Presidents house and eat a big dinner that Sister Silva makes and that is always awesome! 

I have always loved eating with President because I use the time to try to ask him all the possible questions in the world because he is always teaching and it is super awesome! This time we got to talking about his mission. He told us a lot about his mission president as well who sounds like a total stud. He was one of the first brasilian mission presidents and he was about 40 years old. But he said his Mission President taught them doctrine just like he is doing with us. President Silva loves doctrine. That has been his focus as a mission president this whole time, to help the missionaries learn the doctrine of the church because so few members really know it for themselves. 

But President Silva told us the story that after his mission he made a commitment to himself to never ever have to depend on another person for doctrinal knowledge. He said, we have the same scriptures, the same resources that the Prophet and the apostles have so we have to find the doctrine for ourselves! And that is what President has done his whole life! If he doesnt know something he finds it! And guy knows so much doctrine it is crazy! 

So when President came in he started making a lot of "crazy changes" as the members here like to say and it was hilarious because everything that President put into the mission, the area presidency put it into the Area Plan of 2015. 

It happened like that because he knows the doctrine! All of us need to learn the doctrine of the church for ourselves! We can find everything we need to know to be good leaders and good members in the scriptures and the church manuals. 

Then on Tuesday we went to pick up all the new missionaries. This group we had nine news and 8 of them were brasilians! That was crazy! We are getting a ton of brazilians in the mission now. Where are you at americans?? Lets go! haha no i am kidding. But we did the training in the afternoon and did a big apresentation to give them their trainers. All the newbies love it! It is a video of the baptisms in the mission and scriptures with cool music that gets them all fired up. Then we went and had lunch with president again with all the new elders and then that night we sent them all off to their areas! 

But also I wanted to give a shout out to the best dad in the world! Happy birthday dad! (his birthday is this tuesday!) I am so blessed with the best parents in the world who always put the gospel first in their lives! My dad has always done that in his life and that is why i am out here on a mission right now! I say this all the time to people out here and members and the mission when we teach them about the importance of scripture study and i tell them how i cant remember a single day when i woke up early in the morning at 5:30 and i didnt find him reading his scriptures! He alwasy did it cuz he knew that is how we are guided in our lives! And I am so thankful for an awesome example for me in my whole life and someone who was smart enough to pick such an awesome wife for him and mom for us! I love you dad and thanks for everything! 

But anyways I love my mission and every moment of it and I know exactly how I would be without it, lost and miserable! Missions are the biggest miracles of our life! 

I love you all and hope everything is going good! Have an awesome week! 

Elder Keller 

#63 November 14, 2015 D&C 1:39

This week I learned the meaning of Doctrine and Covenants 1:39! So we found that guy who wanted to learn about Family History who is a total genius. He is wealthy, an engineer, and has no religion because he seems to be one of those guys who thinks he knows more than everyone else. He is super nice but just very intelligent. He is not sure about what he believes in God. 

We went back this week and he had read the first and second pamphlets. The first on the Restoration, the second on the Plan of Salvation. The guy is really smart and said that we were just another church that was trying to be the right church and fill all the holes that the bible has in its "logic". So anyways we were teaching, Fernandez and I, and everything was off. The guy was asking a ton of questions, and really good questions and we were trying to answer them all, but we were all over the place. The biggest question he asked us was, "how do you guys really know for yourselves??" And I was thinking of a hundred ways to explain it. But luckily Elder Fernandez just out of the blue followed the spirit and just starts talking about the First vision of Joseph Smith. Then mid sentance the guys cuts him off and starts talking. 

I dont remember exactly how it happened but we used the spirit to guide Iuri (thats his name) to tell us a story about one time that he prayed. He doesnt talk a lot about his life but he told us one night he was praying really hard and felt like someone was in the room with him helping him. It was the night his dad had died. We then asked him if he really believes it happened. And he said yes but that he would never be able to prove it and then you saw a huge light go off in his head and the Spirit totally gave him knowledge! And you could physically see it in his eyes! He couldnt even say anything. He just stammered out, i get it now, i get how an anser works, wow. It was awesome! the spirit was super strong and then I got all excited and tried going off explaing the spirt and then Fernandez hits me and I remembered that Elder Costa (the seventy of Brasil) told us we need to get the spirit in the house, leave and let it teach the investigator. So then we ended the lesson and we left. It was awesome! 

I am writing fast so the story probably makes no sense but I learned how the Spirit testifies to people this week. My mom describes answers from the Spirit like an epiphany. (if thats how you spell it) And you saw Iuri just have one of those moments! It was really cool. 

But we will see what happens. Rubens and Flavia are going to church this week and we went there and things are getting better! Flavia just hasnt decided if she is going to come back or not! And rubens thinks she is going to come back. But we had a really good lesson with them and used the family: proclamation to the world to teach them the power of families! So we are praying that everything goes well! 

But transfers were this week so everything was super busy! Well transfers happen next week but we had to get everything prepared. Life here in Florianópolis is so awesome! When we drive into the office we go down a road that has an awesome view of the bridge! It is gorgeous here! I am so thankful that i get to serve in this mission! 

But anyways things are going awesome here and we are finding awesome spiritual experiences almost every day! Like Elder Andersen asked last april conference, "can you see the hand of the lord in your life?" Look for it every day! have an awesome week! 

Elder Keller 

#62 November 7, 2015

This week was really good! We started working in a different bairro of our area and things are going really great and we are finding a lot of new people to teach! We also had a guy pull over in his car and ask us about geneology work cuz he heard the church does a lot of it and so we marked a day to go visit him and turns out he is a total genius engineer and had tons of questions about the church and is pretty interested so we will see where that goes! Also it stopped raining yesterday! So this week has been great! 

There was just one really big downer though. So we went to visit Rubens and Flavia on Thursday but Rubens ended up having to travel to go see his Dad who is in the Hospital so we ended up just teaching Flavia. We went there with Irmão Diego who is an R.M. of about 5 years and is already married and has a kid. 

Anyways everything just felt wrong in the lesson, the Spirit wasn't right and everything was just off. Luckily Elder Fernandez was good enough to turn it around. She just seemed kind of off and like she wasnt really paying a lot of attention during the lesson so Fernandez asked her a question (don't remember what it was) and she stopped and then spilled a bunch of stuff to us. She told us she just bought a ticket to Fortaleza, (north east of brasil) to go back and live with her sister and she is gonna take Leticia, their daughter with her. 

Turns out the fights between them had been really bad and it seems like they had just hit rock bottom when we found them. She told us how they had to be out of their house by December, and their relationship was just horrible and fighting every day. She has already left once but ended up coming back. Anyways it was super sad because she doesnt know what she is gonna do! She says that Ruben has begun to change a ton since he began reading the book of mormon but she feels like she has had enough and is thinking that she just wants to move back to fortaleza where her family is from. 

But then after we talked about why she thought we found them right when we did? She told us the story about how Rubens had been praying a lot for some kind of guidance in his life because everything was just going wrong and then we found them. It is just such huge proof that God lives and he loves us and answers our prayers! And we talked to her about that but she said that it has been really really hard the past two years because they arent married and they kind of had to stay together because of the daughter... (That is why we gotta keep the commandments) 

But Irmão Diego bore a really powerful testimony on how the Gospel and the Church can cure everything! I am really glad we had him because as Elders without marriage experience we don't know anything! But she said she is still trying to decide if she is going to stay in Fortaleza or come back. 

At the end of the lesson we invited her to say the last prayer and she did and at the end she just started crying... The lesson was probably the most spiritually intense one that I have had my whole mission! We did everything we can as missionaries, not stepping over our boundaries to try to get her to stay but now its up to prayers and them! So please pray for her! 

It was very interesting because it shows how important the gospel is in a marriage but more importantly how important the barriers are that God has set for us! And you are miserable when you try to pass them! You will end up getting eaten by sharks! Sounds horrible but it's true! 

So we are praying a lot for them right now and we will see what happens. Flavia said she would still go to church tomorrow so we will see. 

But anyways transfers are coming up in a week so things are about to get really busy! Time is just flying by! This past transfer felt like two weeks of any other. It is totally crazy! I love my mission! It is awesome here! President is in Recife this week in a Mission President training. Dang imagine what they are talking about their! I cant wait till he gets back because he for sure is just gonna talk a ton about it! Great learning opportunities! 

Oh yeah everyone go look up the Area Plan for where you are at in the church! That is a huge problem here with members. President Silva follows everything that the Area Presidency puts in the Area Plan but none of the members know that there exists an area plan so they get all ticked when President starts trying to do something different. But it was funny, President showed us the Area Plan of 2015 (you can look it up on lds.org) and everything in their is what he did this past year including the 3 km rule. And we are one of the only missions that follows it! But anyways go find out what your area plan is and try to follow it! 

But I love you guys so much! Have an awesome week! 

Elder Keller 

#61 October 31, 2015 Commandments Protect Us, Elder sent home

Alright this week was awesome because we had a great meeting with President this week! It was Interviews yesterday and everytime we do Interviews we have a training beforehand. 

But it was a really bittersweet week. 

So this week an Elder was sent home because of a mistake he made out here. He is an awesome Elder and I love the guy a ton. But President talked about it a little before the interviews to reinforce obedience. This Elder was doing really good and progressing a lot on the mission but then started to make some exceptions to the rules and ended up getting to the point where he made a mistake that made it so that he couldnt stay. 

The reason i am writing about this is because when President started talking about it he just told the zone that we had lost an Elder the day before. And then he just kind of broke down. To give you an idea this was the second time I have seen him cry my whole mission! 

He had to stop for a while to be able to talk but he told us what the Elder said to him. That he would give anything to go back and change what had happened. He said he had never seen a missionary that was just so sad and if he could, he would have done anything to let him stay. But he couldnt. This Elder explained that it all started by not obeying the rules and the LITTLE THINGS. Like Coach Campbell always said that to us. Its all about the little things! If we wanted to be great players or a great team it started with the little things like being a good student on campus, being good in class, getting good grades, picking up a piece of trash on campus, etc... But the Elder told President that he never thought that he would get to that point. And really who does? That is how Satan tricks us! I always thought that these kinds of things would never really happen, that they are just stories but it happens! That is why there is law, why there are commandments! And that is why we have to obey! I think my favorite talk this last conference was by Elder Keetch. Blessed and happy are those that keep the commandments! And I loved his parable that he used about the surfers and the sharks! 

That is exactly how it is! The rules, the commandments, the law, its all here to protect us and help us to reach our full potential. We arent going to miss out on anything if we keep the commandments. Even down to the littlest things like striving to keep the sabbath day better! 

But it was a good meeting because I think the mission is really starting to see how much president loves us and wants to do what is best! He told us that every single rule he has made out here was for a purpose and was to protect us because he loves us. 

He also talked about a ton of other things because his head is just chalk full of doctrine and it was awesome but the biggest things is obey, and dont look for the glory of man! What matters is the Glory of God and if we trust him everything will work out in the end. 

But about the area, Rubens and Flavia went to church on Sunday! And they loved it! And their one year old daughter who has to be with her mom twenty four seven went to nursery and stayed the whole time! 

They are pretty awesome and loved the church already! They are studying the Book of Mormon and doing all the searches that come with the pamphlets and you can see the joy in their lives now! I hope they stay strong and good, because Satan always thinks of something to try to screw things up but please pray for them! 

But I love you all so much and hope you have an awesome week! Also everyone needs to watch the talk by Brad Wilcox from a 2011 Byu devotional titled, "His Grace is Sufficient". We watched it again this week and it was a great reminder of how amazing the Atonement is. 

But love you! Have an awesome week! 

Elder Keller 

#60 October 24, 2015 Meeting Rubens & Flavia

There is sun today! So we took advantage and went on a little to the morro da cruz! It was super pretty! I sent the pics this morning. 

Santa Catarina is flooding everywhere down here. Joinville flooded this week, Chapeco, and Itajaí. It is raining like crazy all over the place! They said after today it is just gonna start raining again so we will see what happens! 

But Floripa is still pretty in the rain! This week was really good! We are starting to find people and having more time in our area. We had a really cool experience this week... 

So we talked to a family on the street the other day and the Dad Rubens said we could go by later on his day off. So we went and I was thinking with my little faith it isnt going to work because literally everyone says we can come by but no one ends up being home or when we get there say they are busy. But this guy answered the door and was really cool and told us to come in. His wife is Flavia and they have a one year old daughter Leticia. I thought everything was going to be really fancy here on the island but our ward is actually a very more humble area. Joinville was A LOT nicer. 

Anyways we got to know them a little bit and they explained how they don't go to any church and really feel like they are needing God back into their lives right now. So we left them the first pamphlet and marked with them for tomorrow. But anyways we were finishing up and after the prayer I was just thinking that we had to be fast so we could get out of there and get going with everything but as soon as everyone said amen Rubens just totally broke into tears. After he was done crying he explained how he could totally feel the absence of God in his life and told us how their relationship was really strained because of financial problems and how he knows he has to turn things around. 

But it was just so plain and simple to see that the gospel completes people! We visited an inactive person the other day who we found on the road and she hasn't had contact with the church for about five years. But you could just see how absolutely miserable she was! And maybe she doesn't want to admit but you could totally see that there is a huge chunk missing! 

We need the gospel in our lives to be truly happy! But hopefully this family progresses! It would be awesome! The work here is slowly building up but hopefully soon it will be better! 

We had a zone training this week about member missionary work because President Silva says that we havent learned what we need to yet so he told everyone that we need to re train on it and work better with the members because that is the key! 

I miss Joinville because the members were awesome! They were totally doing awesome when we left. The members are nice and will go on visits with us but there is a really big division between the missionary work and the members. So President wants us to teach the members that that is not how it should be. 

President is out doing interviews this week so it was slower and we didnt have as many things to do. So it gave us a good chunk of time in our area! But we also had to look for a new apartment because ours is too small for 4 so we found one this week. It looks like we will be moving in like a month! And the new apartment has AC!!!! So that will be the biggest blessing ever during this next summer! No one here uses AC. They all just use fans... 

But also Luke had a birthday this week! 6 years old! I love you Luke! You are a total stud! Mom told me that you get your cast off soon! Nice work for being tough! But happy birthday!!! 

Anyways hope everything is going great! I love you all so much! Have a great week! 

Elder Keller 

#59 October 17, 2015

This week was a lot more calm so that was really nice! I saw in my parents letters that there are a lot of questions so I am gonna try to start answering all of those! 

So first off, more about my companion Elder Fernandez. The guy is awesome and I love teaching with him! He is from santiago chile although 3 years ago his family and he moved to viña del mar, which is a gorgeous place on the beach. His parents are both converts and were baptized in their teens. His dad served a mission in Chile and it seems like they are a pretty solid family! He has one sister and it is just his family who are members. No one else is active. He has a few aunts that are members as well but the majority arent active i think. But he is an awesome guy! He extended a transfer on the mission so he can stay till February. So it will be interesting to see if he stays here longer. 

Our area is all hills haha! We have a part along the west side of the island and the way it works is there is a main road that runs parallel to the water front and then every single road goes up the side of super steep hills. So its a great work out ever day! Our area probably is the least prettiest of all of them in Floripa but it is still gorgeous! We live with two other elders, Nascimento and Hull. From São Paulo and texas. They are cool guys! All the secretaries live by the office but we see them all the time! and every friday we basically see the whole zone because everyone has to go the church building in the center to have to meetings. So i still see moore all the time! I am also back with Sierras who is awesome as well! 

But the island is really big. It is the second biggest city in santa catarina and joinville is the first, but in land mass floripa is bigger. It is raining cats and dogs here so we will see if it clears up soon! The ward is really cool and there are a lot of cool members on the island! Elder Anderson talked about a family from here in his talk from april of 2013. I love  the island! and it is definitely one of the strongest areas of the mission member wise so im excited to work! 

The work in our ward is kind of at a stand still and in a big cutting of investigator process so we are trying to find a lot of people right now so we dont have to worry about cutting. But the Lord is helping us find! 

And time and time again I am so amazed by President Silvas knowledge of doctrine and the scriptures. He said he loved being in charge of seminary and institute because his job for 20 plus years was to study the scriptures. And it has always been his biggest thing to really know the doctrine. One of his biggest quotes that he uses is, "where are all the john taylors of today?" he talks about bible bashing and he said that no one knew the scriptures better than john taylor, and john taylor made sure that was the case so that he could always defend his faith. And that is how we need to treat the scriptures as members! We need to know the doctrine of the church. 

But it is such a huge testimony builder that God calls the leaders. When Elder Eyring called President Silva, he told him that his name had been in Salt Lake for a few years now and they were just waiting to call him to be President but they had to wait for the right time and im so thankful he got called now! 

 I love my mission! And im so glad that im here! But i love you guys so much and hope that everything is going great! have a great week! 

Elder Keller 

#58 October 10, 2015 Transfers! Florianopolis :)

Alright so this past week has been really busy and awesome! To start off P day is on saturday for us because monday we have too many things to do. I'm not being a fubeca (bad missionary in portuguese) haha. 

But anyways, last thursday President Silva called Moore and I and told us both that we were coming to Floripa! That was a big shocker! We thought we would be staying until at least December! And things were going so awesome is Joinville and the ward was really starting to trust us so we were kind of sad but I love Floripa! 

Quick updates on Sonia and Lucas and Eli. So Sonia's date is for the 31st! halloween haha. Our Bishop wouldn't be there the week of the baptism so it is now for the thirty first. She is doing great and we have been in contact with other elders and explained everything that is going on with her and i trust she is in good hands (: 

Eli and Lucas were bummed that we were leaving but they are so great that nothing will ever stop them from joining the church. They are just so awesome! They are gonna get baptized in November! The good thing is that we will get all of the pictures and the updates in the office! 

But anyways Elder Moore and I left on monday morning to come here. We got here at about 10:30 in the morning and then we just took our bags to the mission office and had to get to work right away! My new companion is Elder Fernandez from Chile. He is so awesome! He is a really great and spiritually powerful Elder. And one of the most humble guys I have met! He has been here since February. So about 8 months. Long time! But I am super excited to learn from him. He goes home in february already so its coming up fast! 

But on Monday and Tuesday we were in charge of all the Elders and Sisters that were leaving and the new ones that were coming in. Monday was awesome. We had a big going away dinner with President and Sister Silva for all the ones leaving and Sister Silva cooks really well! It isn't just rice and beans haha. 

Then the next day we took the missionaries to the airport to see them off. It was really weird and I have realized that I don't want that day to come. I love and miss everyone but I love my mission so much! But ten months is a good chunk of time still. 

Then we waited at the airport until the all the new missionaries got here. Then President and Sister Silva came to pick them up as well. This was a huge group. There were 16! And a ton of Brasilians are coming in now. In this group there were 5 americans and 11 brasilians. 

But after that we had a big lunch with the news and again with President and Sister Silva. Then we came back to the mission office. The mission office is a big building connected to a chapel here on the island. So we had a training with President and all the new missionaries where we presented their trainers to them and their areas and then sent them all off! 

But I havent had a lot of time to get to know the area yet. But I think next week things will start to calm down. I love having so much time with President Silva though! It is the best! When we are with him we just ask question after question and he always has answers or tells us where we can find them. He is such a great man! And one thing I love is that he tells tons of stories! And he has got a lot. President has worked with the church practically his whole life. So he has a lot of knowledge of the church and how it all works. 

General Conference was absolutely amazing though. This one I watched in Portuguese because we couldnt take away from the wi fi signal in the chapel. But it was still so awesome! I loved Elder Hollands talk on Mothers, Henry B. Eyerings on the Spirit, What lack I yet by Lawrence, Ponderize, the one by Carole M. Stephen on the commandments and the spirit. There were so many good ones! 

But now the key is we have to study these talks! We all need to study the Liahona after conference. President's last weekly email was about that. How lots of members say, "I loved conference", but then no one really studies it after. It is so important to study after. 

But anyways, I love you all and hope everything is going awesome! Have a great week! 

Elder Keller 

#57 October 6, 2015 sorry!! i love you guys!!

I have no time. I am in the office now and things are way crazy and transfers are happening! We slept six hours in the past two days! So President called thursday and said he had a challenge for me and moore and then called moore to be the executive sec. in the office and me to be the other assistant to him there. my comp is Elder Fernandez and I love the guy! He is a spiritually powerful guy and I am super excited! I will try to find time later to write you guys because we have our own computer but we have to do transfers and trainings and we dont have a lot of time. Fernandez is here for 6 months already and is teaching me everything but I am still super lost. haha but i love the office already and president is awesome! but i will try to find time to write tonight! we will see what happens. it is just like this for this week because the news came in and because we have to get everyone out to the areas! love you guys! 

#56 September 28, 2015

Alright this week went great! Last week I didnt talk a lot about the investigators cuz I needed to give my awesome mom the credit she deserves! So this week I will spend more time on them! 

So Sonia is totally fine and came to church this Sunday. She is awesome! It was pooring rain and she comes by bus every week because she didn't want a member to have to come get her. Until this week at least, cuz we kept insisting and it was raining cats and dogs! haha. But she is doing great, no coffee, reads the BOM every day and loves the church! And the members are doing good with her! 

Lucas and Eli had to go to Paraná this week, the state above us, to get their documents for marriage so they couldnt go to church but they are awesome! Eli had left her Book of Mormon at the church last sunday and we had a visit with them on monday night. When we got there she was freaking out because she told us she still hadnt read that day and her day was just going horrible and she needed to read. So we left her with another copy and went back to the church to get hers but i thought it was so interesting. Eli truly sees the importance that The Book of Mormon has in her life, so much that she was going crazy after just not being able to read it when she woke up one morning. If every member including me had that kind of attitude about the scriptures could you think about how different things would be? But it totally makes sense! Even on the mission I sometimes have a ton of things I have to worry about and I dont have that absolute number one priority of read the scriptures. But that has got to be at the top! 

But i am super excited for conference this weekend. I always thought my parents were weird for loving conference weekend so much but now I can't wait to see what they have to say to us this week. Conference always seems to answer my doubts and questions! Granted there have only been about two that I have really wanted to pay attention to but in these last two I felt that even though it was for a whole general audience, it was exactly for me! So go into conference with an attitude of learning and we will come out with the knowledge that we need to be able to perfect ourselves a little bit more in these next six months. 

But we found some pretty cool new people to teach! One guy was a cool little experience, his name is Ricardo. So one day we had to walk super far to get back home because we had to get home and then go to the church that night. Anyways halfway home we realize Elder Moore left his umbrella and we had to walk all the way back to go get it and we were in a hurry. But then we start walking home again and as soon as we get back to the point where we had previously gotten, we here someone yelling, "hey mormons!". We turn around and theres a tall skinny white guy yelling at us in english to go talk to him. Anyways, he was drunk becuase he just got a divorce and is super depressed and lost in life but we ended up marking with him and visited him the next day and he is a good guy. I dont know how far it will go but it shows how the Lord is in charge and knows what needs to happen in our lives. 

I am going over to Bucks house to make cinamon roles for p day! gonna be a blast! I am loving Joinville! 

But love you all and hope you have an awesome week! 

Elder Keller 

#55 September 21, 2105

Well I gotta be quick but this week was awesome! President came back this week for a zone conference so as usual it was spiritually great! The guy has such spiritual power! 

We talked about working with the members, something that Elder Moore is teaching me a lot out here. And we also talked about our heroes in our lives and president used some awesome stories! His point was what are we doing everything we could in our lives to be like our heroes? And more importantly who are our heroes? He then broke down examples of all the great men in the book of mormon and we talked about what they did to become the men they were and how we need to do the same things! It was an awesome meeting! 

President has worked in the church educational system his whole life so he has just worked with the scriptures! He is a genius with them! 

But one thing I am super thankful for is the amazing mom that i have! Special shout out and a happy birthday to the best mom ever, Aimee Keller! 

President always says behind every great man there is usually a better woman! And that is so true! Every talks about how awesome Dad is all the time but like he always says he wouldnt be that way if it werent for mom. And I dont know why I was blessed with such an awesome mom but I thank Heavenly Father for her every day! She never gives into the glory of man and she has always been humble and done her best in everything that has ever been handed to her. Even me the punk kid Elder Keller and I know that I would be totally lost today with my mom! 

I look at other parents out here on the mission and one thing i have found is that it is really hard to find a mom as good as mine! Unfortunately because I was so lazy before the mission she basically did everything for me and made me who I was and I will always be so grateful for that. She is such a hard worker and is a perfect example of dilligence and enduring to the end! The more time out here the more time I realize women are the experts and they are the ones that teach the men. We get the responsibilities and the Priesthood cuz we have so much to learn and that is why we need an awesome wife with an awesome foundation! Moms are so important! 

But mom thank you so much for everything you have done for me and our family! You are the best mom in the world! Hope you had a good Birthday! Oh and that mom and dad, you guys had a good aniversary!

Well everyone I hope you guys have an awesome week! Love and miss you all!  

Love, Elder Keller 

#54 September 14, 2015 Floripa

This week was sweet! Moore and I got to go into Florianópolis for the counsel this week with President and it was totally awesome as usual! 

Florianópolis is a gorgeous city! I hope I get more time there but at least now we will be able to go in more often for counsel meetings! Super excited for that! 

But President talked a lot about how we cant fear man before fearing God. Members here are great people but rules in Brasil arent on the top of the priority list. So a lot of the time that is how a missionary ends up breaking a rule, because they want the member to like them and so they just go along with it. He talked about how we need to realize that when we are on Gods side we dont need to worry about anything! Things will always work out for the better. 

He also talked a lot about our heros in life. How in our day to day decisions we have to think about those people and ask ourselves how would they act in the situations that we encounter every day. And I think that is just awesome advice. He talked about Helaman chapter 5 and the reasons that the word remember is in there so many times is becuase one of our biggest problems as the natural man is forgetting! And we cant forget! We have to always remember what the Lord has done for us and that he will continue to bless us if we keep the commandments! 

One of the coolest things I noticed at the Conference was that the spirit there was really powerful! And it was a little bit different than the other times we are with President but I think it was because all the missionaries there were the ones who are doing their best be obey, follow President, and just all in all be a good missionary. And it was super cool to be able to see that! President Silva talks about how a lot of the time, just a few disobedient missionaries are the cause of a mission not reaching its true potential. 

But people wise was great this week as well! Sonia stopped drinking coffee, awesome! Cevada here is a drink that is very similar to coffee but isnt against the word of wisdom. Thanks mom for the advice! Totally worked! But now the biggest problem is her family. All her kids are super against the church and so she is afraid to lose her kids if she gets baptized so we moved the baptismal date back to october. She already has one daughter that hasnt spoken to her in a few years becuase of a church she started following. Super sad! They are all older and have families but hopefully we can figure that out. Pray for the Lord to be able to soften her kids hearts! Oh and Sonia is in Helaman in the Book of Mormon already!

Lucas and Eli as usual are awesome! We had an awesome experience with Eli. It was just like how it should be with every investigator who is an elect. We talked about testimonies of the Book of Mormon and she has been reading it like crazy! And she started talking to us about how her life and her families life has changed one hundred percent because of the church and the scriptures and then she said, "And I can say that I know the Book is true for myself now. I know it's true, I know it's true and nothing that happens in my life will be able to make me deny that."

That is the phrase that every missionary wants to hear! haha. So they are doing great! We are going to visit them tonight with the stake seminary teacher and her husband so that should be awesome! Lucas is doing good and we challenged them to establish a date for their wedding in November and work to be able to have Lucas walking by then! 

So yeah the week was great! Thanks to Elder Moore who is a pro at working with members the ward is totally turning around! We talked to Bishop this week because he works by our house and the ward now is going to be doing a 40 day fast to help the missionary work and the unity in the ward get better. So one member or family will pick one of the forty days and fast on that day and then on the last day we will have a big activity to end the fast so that will be awesome! And the ward is fired up about it! 

But anyways things are going great here! We have a Zone Conference with President this week so that should be awesome! But I love and miss you all so much and hope everything is going great! Have an awesome week! 

Elder Keller