#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