#74 January 30, 2016 Fernandez is back in Chile!

Well the biggest event this week is that Fernandez is back in Chile now! As I had explained before he had a visa problem and had to go home a week and a half early. But I feel super weird because he was the comp that i had for the longest time! Plus he taught me how to do everything here in the office and now that he is gone i feel super lost! haha 

But this next week is going to be really interesting because it will be transfer week so pray for me that I don't mess anything up! 

So for this next week I am sticking with a kid named Elder Delaney from Utah. He is going to stay with me until President finishes up with the transfer. He has been out for a year and 3 months and is a good kid! 

Alright well considering that I didnt send a General last week I will update on all the investigators! 

Dad you had asked about Yuri that smart guy we were teaching, He was about 100 pages through  the Book of Mormon and loving it but didnt want to accept our visits for a while because he had people staying at his house for a while during the party time of brasil so we took the book of mormon back and explained that the moment he wanted to start receiving the visits again we would be back in a flash! So now we are waiting on his call. He said February he would start to have time to accept us again. But he was so bummed when we took the Book of Mormon away! And i was super happy about that because he was seeing the importance that it has! Not that he was sad of course but that he acquired a little bit of hunger for the scriptures! This happened about three weeks ago so after carnaval we are going to try to get back into contact with him. 

Rubens is on fire! He is almost done with 2 Nephi and loving everything about the gospel! He gets 18 days off work in February so he will be at church every sunday possible! And he is super excited because Flávia and Letícia get back on Wednesday so that will be great! I dont know if i said anything but they changed the tickets to Feb. 3rd! So pray that Flavia will have an open heart when she gets here! 

Maria and Angelo are also awesome! They were the ones we cut a while back and then wanted us to come back. The ones that went to church because she got her answer that the church was true when she only get two and a half hours of sleep the night before sunday but was able to wake up to go to church! They have come back from Xanxerê now and went to church last week! They are finishing up the principles of the Gospel book and are totally loving it because it is really simplified and easy to understand! Angelo just finished up 9th grade (they are going back to finish up school) and is totally dominating in the reading part. He just learned how to read a little bit ago but he loved the Principles of the Gospel because for the first time in his life he is able to understand the doctrine for himself! 

They asked us in this last visit how everything needs to work for them to be baptized and what has to happen and how they have to get married and stuff so that is great! 

These two couples just have to get married and Rubens just has to get his day off as sunday and then they are good to go! We are also gonna gave to teach Flavia everything that she missed but things are going really good! 

Rodolfo got a job this week which is awesome but that means less visits. We are going to visit him tonight. Its been about a week and a half since he got the job and we havent gotten to visit him. So we will see what happens tonight. 

But anyways not this past week but the week before ANOTHER missionary had to go home early because of problems out here on the mission. And this time was different because i was super close to this guy! And the worst part about it was that when we lived together he was a super obedient and powerful missionary! I was absolutely shocked when President told us that he would have to be going home. 

And i share this because it goes to show that none of us are invulnerable to satans temptations. No matter who we are or at what stage of life we are in! But we start going down when we forget about the little things. I cant remember the story but its in one of the standard works book about the prophet that was praying for strength to endure to the end on his death bed. That sounds pretty crazy if you think about it. On his death bed just a few moments away from dying what can the guy do? But he gotten to a level so advanced in his life that he wanted to stay completely worthy until the very end! 

And we gotta be like that! It is hard for me to always keep my guard up but it is just something that we gotta do! 

But anyways I am out of time now but i love you all so much! We also had a sweet missionary transmisson and it was great! We learned a lot of great things about teaching so I am really going to focus and teaching and following the spirit in the lessons (and in all other aspects) in these last six months. 

Also President told us this week that Elder Zwick of the seventy is coming to our mission in March! That is going to be sweet! He gave an awesome talk a few years ago in conference called, "What Are You Thinking?" Super excited! 

Love you all! Hope you have an awesome week! 

Elder Keller 

#73 January 23, 2016 No General, Trip Plans

Alright I read the trip deets and i am gonna try to respond to the questions!

You guys are nuts coming down here! It is gonna be so expensive! haha but if  you wanna sounds good! 

The trip you plans sounds awesome! I would just change one thing. 

Joinville and guaratuba i think we can get it all done saturday and sunday morning for church. The people are what are important to me there! So that will be quick. Guaratuba doesnt have a lot to do and neither does joinville. I would hit guaratuba on saturday really quickly, take you guys on a hike and show you the people i love and then go back to joinville to go to church on sunday! i would go to church in joinville. maybe stay in a hotel in guaratuba? i dont know if they have nice ones though... depends if you could get one on the beach. if not we can sleep in  joinville! 

But then after church maybe already come back to florianópolis. get here sunday afternoon? i think that would be cool! 

but mom i know a ton of awesome members here that know amazing hikes that take you to private beaches that i think you would love! floripa has so many things to do! And there are tons of hikes! So i dont know how long you are gonna wanna stay in joinville. I think i will definitely love that ward the most but i think we will be able to see everyone there pretty quickly. And guaratuba as well. 

Florianópolis is really really pretty so its up to you guys! Mom i know there is a ton of things you would like to do here.

I loved the call on the falls though! it is gorgeous there! i just didnt want to go cuz i thought it would be too expensive but it is actually ridiculous there and when i was in pato branco everyone would show us all the pics and stuff! 

but yeah i dont need to visit pato branco! totally fine with that! 

I would try to stay in the south east part of the island if you want the prettiest part! the bairros rio tavares and campeche. The north i here is very pretty as well but the people that live here say the south is very pretty. Ingleses which is in the north as well as canasvieras is where all tourists go but it is all dirty water and just not as natural i here. 

but i have never been so you guys may bwant to do some searches on the internet! 

Rio is gonna be awesome! super excited for that! 

as it goes with cars yeah you gotta rent a car here! that would be the best idea. rent the car until monday in florianópolis and then we go to rio and foz and get the car again when we come back to joinville. 

But sorry i was on and off email today so i wont have time to do a general and we are trying to get fernandez ready to go! 

but i love you guys so much and everything is going awesome here! have a great week! 

#72 January 16, 2016 What Not To Do...

Alright so this week I had some great learning lessons! 

So on Tuesday and Wednesday we had a Mission Leadership Council so Fernandez and I have been preparing for a while for it to be able to give good trainings along with the other assistants. But because we are here in Florianópolis we have to direct the whole thing. 

So this past week President and Sister came to our ward and there was a big show down between our Gospel Principles teacher President. President is a ridiculously good teacher! He has been in the CES for the past 20 years and just awesome! And our Gospel Principles teacher is alright. He tries really hard but sometimes forgets that the whole reason that class exists is to help the investigators and the recent converts. 

So an investigator asked a question about the Ressurection on Sunday and it was a really good question! The teacher blew it over and you could see that the investigator was kind of embarassed and felt like he did something wrong because the teacher said that that class was at the end of the year. 

So the teacher asks if anyone would like to say anything like 3 minutes after this happens and President raised his hand and then started talking to this investigator and answering his questions and totally helped the guy out and made him feel good and he said he is coming back tomorrow! The teacher was a little ticked because President kind of took over the class but it was to help the investigator! 

So President this week in the office has been teaching us a bunch of things about the importance of being a great teacher. He loves the manual, (dont know if this is the name in english) "Teaching, There is no Greater Calling." And President dominates at teaching! And he tries to do his best to pass everything to us. 

He showed us three awesome videos this week about the power of teaching and how be gotta do it. They are all videos that only these CES guys get for trainings so it is way cool! 

The first one is of President Howard W. Hunter. He was in a conference (priesthood or general i dont remember) and someone has stolen his time and he was the last speaker. He only had about 3-4 minutes left to give his talk and then the meeting would be over. And being the Prophet, he respects the time. So he gets up, and watching this video knowing the backstory is awesome because he is totally calm. Then he tells a simple story about when he was a kid and it ends up being an amazing parable about the importance of teaching. 

My email isnt going to make a whole lot of sense cuz its hard to explain it all in an email. But President Hunter realized he didnt have a lot of time. So he calmed down, and taugh just one principle simply and to the best of his ability following the spirit! And it was one principle that hits home and really helps the student/listener. 

One thing we gotta do is calm down and not worry so much about the time. It is better to teach 1 principle well done, helping the person you are teaching to understand, than 20 principles all as quick as possible and the person not learing anything! 

The other 2 videos were of Elder Holland and Elder Christofferson, and Elder Bednar all explaining the exact same thing! 

So President is showing us a bunch of awesome stuff about the importance of teaching the whole week and what do we do? We get into the council on wednesday and do the exact opposite! hahah We were running out of time and so we tried rushing things and jamming a pack full of principles together and throwing it at all the missionaries and it just doesnt work out like that! 

I am so thankful for the atonement because without it I would be so done for! haha. So it was a good experience learned! Know I have a goal to be a better teacher with missonaries and investigators and members! 

But i love you all so much and hope you have an awesome week! 

Elder Keller 

#71 January 9, 2016 The Celestial Kingdom is Going to Be Awesome!

Alright so this week was interesting. We found out Elder Fernandez has to go home two weeks early! Total Surprise! He was supposed to go home February 9th. Now he goes home like the 28th of January. 

Elder Moore received a new secretary training the other day and found out that most of the hispanics have to go home early. So it threw a ton of things off in the mission! So President said I am probably going to have to stay with two other elders or just stay at the secretaries house for that time. We will have to see what happens because transfers alone are gonna be interesting! haha I think I am gonna be totally lost without Fernadez in the office! 

But he was actually super bummed about having to go home early! Earlier on he tried extending another transfer but it didnt get approved because he isnt brasilian. 

It is interesting because we talk a lot about how it is gonna be really weird everyone going their seperate ways, the mission ending and then starting up your life again. Fernandez decided he wants to try to study in the U.S. because we talk about all the friends we gain on the mission and the possibility of never really seeing them again. So he wants to go there because most of the people try to go. 

But it got me thinking, and I have thought about this quite a few times there are so many people that we really grow to love in this life but they dont stay around for ever. Even your family doesnt stay the same forever and that stinks! My parents sent me a bunch of pictures of North Bend Washington and all the cousins and famliy up there and its weird cuz things are changing. And i was just thinking, man that is so lame! I want these things to stay the same and i was to always be able to be with these people for ever. Freinds from the mission, members from here, investigators, family members, friends in life, etc...

But that is why we all gotta get to the Celestial Kingdom! It is going to be sweet there! When I think about the happiness that comes from all the people that play a big part in your life, i realize that the Celestial Kingdom is going to be like that and we are going to have all the time in the world to spend with those people! And thats why we cant quit! I love Muhammad Ali's quote, "Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life a champion!" 

And with the gospel we don't even have to suffer! That is the best part! Men are that they might have joy! 

But with the area everything is going great! Flavia gets here February tenth. Rubens is going firm and doing awesome! We are really trying to focus on helping him understand how to study the scriptures and learn the doctrine for himself now. And he is doing awesome! Starting to connect principles and doctrines in the book of mormon with what he is learning in the pamphlets so that is really great! 

We have an ex investigator that has started coming to church again! Rodolpho. He is a good guy but super poor so we couldnt visist him because he was working so much because he wasnt able to pay anything for his family. He has a wife and a new born kid. But we found out the other day that he is in Alma and never stopped reading the Book of Mormon because he knew it would bless him! 

His biggest obstacle is his wife, she hates the church! She wont listen to any lessons, avoids us at all costs, and really doesnt want to hear anything. Her name is Suelen so please pray for the Lord to soften her heart so we can start to teach her as well! 

But that is pretty much it for this week! Love you all so much and hope everything is going great! Have an awesome week! 

Elder Keller 

#70 January 2, 2016 Feliz Ano Novo!

Well this week was pretty crazy! 

Alright so we thought this week would be pretty interesting because it is new years but also transfers for our mission fell on this week and it was a total mess! 

So it started off on Sunday and Elder Moore calls us and tells us that two Elders that were supposed to arrive by bus with two other Elders didnt make it to Floripa. So we thought we lost two Elders that didnt have a phone... But it just ended up being that their bus got here four hours late. And that is basically how it was the whole week! Travel by bus this week was just insane! Literally everyone was getting to everywhere late and we ended up having to buy a bunch of new tickets for people because they were losing buses. 

But anyways the worst part was on Tuesday when the news were supposed to get here was a disaster! 

So we are at the airport and they told us that their Plane was gonna get here about 30 minutes late. So we are thinking alright no problem. Then every time that the confirmed hour that they were supposed to land arrived they would push it back another 30 minutes... And they ended up getting there 4 hours late! A plane with some missionaries landed 3 hours late and we thought it was all of  them. And we are waiting for all the missionaries to come out (it was a group of 17) and we start counting and only 8 come out. Then we ask them where were the rest and they said they had put them on another plane! 

So turns out the plane they were on just stopped working. Then had to switch planes, but they didnt have enough room so they put them on two different planes. So by the time they all got their half the group had basically already lost their bus tickets to go out to the field. 

Luckily Elder Moore saved the day and went to the bus station which was just packed and insane and was able to switch all the times to the next day and also book a bunch of rooms in a hotel right by the office so all the novinhos and their trainers had somewhere to sleep. 

But with transfers the Lord helped us so that no one got lost and everyone eventually made it to their areas so it turned out great! 

But for New Years was just totally awesome! So we have a seperate house than the secretaries but for New Years eve we went over to their apartment which is right on the ocean by the bridge. And in Florianópolis they do a huge firework show right on the ocean right there and on the bridge. So when it hit mid night we all went out on top of the building to watch fireworks and because we were so close they were practically right over our heads! It was pretty awesome. And it was ridiculous because people were getting there at 7 in the afternoon to get spots on the road to watch the fireworks but we had a sweet view right from the apartment! 

That night we also bought these huge brazilian burgers that after you eat you feel like you are gonna die. So all in all it ended up being a great week! (: 

Crazy to think that it is already 2016! I am already in the year that i return home from the mission! Time flies by so fast. 

But we found out yesterday that Flavia comes back February 10th. So we are excited for that! Rubens is doing great. I had a great experience this week learning about fasting. This week I was talking to Fernadez about the fast we had done for Rubens and thinking "Why hasnt he gotten his day off switched to sunday yet??? Did the fast not work??" And i was honestly getting pretty frustrated. Cuz now it has been 3 weeks and he has talked to his boss but his boss said he will only be able to switch his day in August or September. Like ridiculous? 

So i started studying more on Fasting and I realized i usually fast the wrong way! My fasts are super week! I say a quick beginning prayer, pray at night and a quick end prayer, pay a fast offering and i think its all good! Haha but this week I learned fasting is a lot more than that! 

Fernandez gave me an awesome talk to study about fasting called, "The Law of the Fast", by Joseph B. Wirthlin. And I learned a lot from that! Two of the biggest things I learned were that fasting should be accompanied with fervent prayers, and also that we really are fasting to understand Gods will, just like prayer. 

So one of my new goals is to have a better fast each month this year. But go read the talk and if you have already read it, read it again its awesome! 

But I love you all and hope the holidays have been great! Have an awesome week! 

Elder Keller