#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