Week 82 Bon Nadal

Hey everyone it's been a while since I've written to you guys, I'll try my best to sum up what I've done.

The week after I wrote you all I went with my district to a cathedral called Tibidabo which is a cathedral in the hills right outside of Barcelona with a view of the entire of city. It was a beautiful view but I was also extremely impressed with the cathedral because the focus of the cathedral was on Christ and his life and so I enjoyed visiting it more than others cathedrals. It was beautiful and I took many photos I'll try and include in the email. 

The week after we had Thanksgiving as a zone and we all prepared food and made traditional Thanksgiving food. It was awesome and at the end we did something called flan suck. If you don't know what flan is, it's a traditional dessert that is basically an egg or vanilla based custard with a sugar syrup on top. Here they sell them in small cups like jello and we took them out of the cups and had a competition to see who could suck the flan faster. It's so soft you can just suck it instead of chewing jajaja. 

This last preparation day we went to a place called Montserrat which is a small town in the mountains with a very impressive view and an amazing cathedral. Honestly anyone who comes to Barcelona should take the time to go there. It's an incredible visit and the cathedral is ancient but incredibly built architecturally. It was full of stained windows and paintings of the baby Jesus which I loved because we're in the Christmas season.

We have been able to use this Christmas season to talk more about Christ with our friends and people in the streets and its been a huge blessing because people are super open to the message! It's one of my favorite times of the year because of this very reason.

We have been doing super good with our friends, and we have been able to find more people to teach! 

We have about 4 solid friends that were teaching and one of them has a baptismal date for the 28th of this month. Recently we had a few miracles happen to us. Honestly we were struggling a bit finding people to teach but suddenly 3 new people came out of nowhere this last week and it's what we were looking for.

1. We met a man named Carlos from Peru that came into the church building after a district meeting and he told us he had been searching for the church for a long time here. He spent 4 years in his country learning from the elders and was close to being baptized 6 times but never did. His kids did and actually one of them served a mission. He spent 20 years not going to church but finally found the church at the right time! We met with him this last week and he Introduced us to his wife who has a lot of interest in the church as well! They are two amazing people with a ton of potential 

2. The second miracle was a strange coincidence of an exchange I did. I went to Martorell and we met with a man who actually lives in our area! His name is Thony and he's from Venezuela. He had a ton of questions about the Plan of Salvation and on how he can come closer to God. He is a super smart man and speaks perfect English so we spoke in English the entire time. We are going to meet again this week and we hope that we can answer more of his questions that he has. He has great desires that go perfectly with the message that we share as missionaries.

This last week we had a huge zone conference with 6 zones, more than half of the mission because the area 70 came to speak to us: Elder Massimo de Feo. He gave a great talk about our calling as a missionary and the responsibilities and powers that come with our calling and he talked a bit about how we can help our friends to better commit to God and not to just the missionaries. It was super spiritual and I took good notes. One of the things that impressed me from his talked was his understanding of spiritual promptings. The word prompting had the root prompt which means quick. So when we receive spiritual promptings its because we need to act quickly on our feelings. 

Honestly not much more has happened. The rest has been pretty normal and the weeks have passed by fast.  This week on Tuesday we have transfers again! And time in the mission is coming closer and closer to being done!

Love you all! Bon Nadal!

Elder Keith 

Week 76 Kanye Dropped a Gospel Album

Hey everyone! Not gonna be a long email today but I'll share a few things that happened this last week:

-We have been working hard with our friend Cecilia who has been progressing a ton! We finally set a baptismal date with her and it's been a huge step for her! We helped her to realize she's received a lot of help from God and that receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost will help her to progress in her faith like she's looking to do!

-We went to our branch president's house and helped him out on his cow ranch. We did some service and then we ate lunch with him. We were able to strengthen our relationship with him and talk to him about how we can help the branch with its needs.

- We met a man to teach named Adrian in a Kebab restaurant jajaja. Me and my companion were hungry all of a sudden and entered into the kebab and as we waited for our food we talked with him. This week we're going to meet with him and see if he has interest in learning more about the church!

That's about it! I'll add in a few pictures to this email from this last week!

Week 75 - 6 Months Left!

Hey everyone I had a great week, every week is passing by faster than the last! 

This last it has started raining more here in Santiago and so we've spent a few hours out here in the rain. I'm surviving though because I found some waterproofing spray in my apartment and so I've waterproofed everything now hahaha. 

This last was full of ups and downs:

-Last week I told you all we were teaching a man named Jonay who was golden and receiving the lessons with joy and an open heart. Well the last time we met with him we invited him to ask God if the church was true and if he should get baptized. He seemed to be doing well but the other day as we walked around in the rain we received a text from him saying we can't meet anymore because his wife doesn't want us to come over and she doesn't want Jonay to change beliefs or church so we won't be meeting with him anymore:( We believe that he received his answer that he should be baptized and when he told his wife she said she's not in favor of that. We pray that one day the situation will change and that he will be able to meet with the missionaries in the future because is a great man with a lot of potential!

-We had 4 friends in church this last week, and one of them was a reference from a member! That's the first time I've seen so many attending since I've been here!

-This last Sunday I had the best lesson I've ever been in in my whole mission. It was with Cecilia and she decided to finally share with us all of her answers and experiences that she's had as she's met with the missionaries. I could write a huge email on everything she told us but let's just say this whole time she's been receiving answers and help from God in her life and we're so glad that all of a sudden she's decided to share it all and open up to us. Truly it was a super spiritual and amazing lesson and her finally sharing this all with us has been an answer to all of our prayers that she would receive answers from God! God works in beautiful and mysterious ways. 

This last week I found a few lectures from the 1960s from a professor from BYU named Madsen G. Truman and he stated a quote from Joseph Smith that said:

" We are often willing to say what we would like to receive of the Lord, even what we would do for it, but we are not as eager to say what we will do with it once it is given."

Have a great week!

Elder Keith 

I don't have many photos from this week but I finally went into the cathedral here! To be honest it was pretty disappointing because they're doing construction on like half of the cathedral so it wasn't that amazing.... but hey I went there! Lol

Week 73 194 Days Left

Let me just say I'm not missing home.  I just have a companion who finishes the mission in 2 transfers and he told me how many days I have left hahaha.  He is missing home a bit.

Hey it's been a while since I've written.  I'm still here in Santiago de Compostela and we're doing great! I love the city and the people here.  It's getting a little rainy but I like it more than the heat. 

I have a different companion from before. His name is Elder Beher, he's also from California but from San Diego. We met each other the first time when I served in Elche and now were here together in Santiago.

We have been putting in good work with our friends and we've seen some great progress from them but we're struggling to find the best way to find new people to teach. The mission is full of great tools to help us find people but we struggle to find where to put our focus so we can find new people. Always pray for the missionaries to find people, it helps a lot. But don't forget and missionaries are full time teachers and members are full time finders, a prayer with the desire to act is always answered by God.

We have a good friend Cecilia who's progressing a lot.  She is just looking for an answer to her prayers to know if what we teach is true. If you have any scriptures or good talks you think we could share with her let me know:) 

Also we have a friend named Jonay who's from the Canary Islands who has been progressing a lot as well. We had a lesson recently with him and we prayed super hard that he could feel the spirit in the lesson. We decided to teach the plan of salvation and for some reason we could not get the words out.  We just had an off lesson but it all changed when we got to the last part of the plan and the part where we explained families can be eternal in the celestial kingdom. When we shared this part the spirit entered into the room like I had never felt it before, like you could touch it and we know Jonay felt it from the tears in his face. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted. We hope to be able to set a baptismal date with him soon. 

Besides that we've been working well here in Santiago and enjoying the mission. This week we have zone conference and a few more visits. The work continues strong here! I'll add some pics from some adventures of my time here in my area:). 

Have a great week!!

Below are Some pictures of my area in Santiago, my companion and I, and pics of Spanish tortilla I'm learning to make!

Week 69 Galician Octopus

So its been a while since I've filled you in on the mission so I'll sum it up the best I can!

We have been seeing lots of miracles actually and seeing a lot of success with our friends which is fantastic! It's been a while since I've taught friends that have progressed so well!

1. We have Cecilia.  I talked about her a bit in my last email.  She's my age from Spain and has been studying with the missionaries for about a month now. We just finished teaching her lesson 4 and we only have 2 more lessons to teach her. She has now come to church twice now and she's been progressing super well and loving the lessons. She's been listening and listening to us and well she still says she doesn't have an answer to know if the church is true but really with all the desires to learn and good feelings she has when she attends church she basically already has her answer. We mentioned baptism a little in the last lesson and surprisingly she took it very well.  So we're being patient with her and letting her take her time but she look to be a golden friend. 

2. We received a reference from some elders in Sweden a few days ago.  Her names is Victoria and she's our age as well and she recently moved here to Santiago. She has been studying with the elders for 6 weeks now and has been to church many times. She's super fun and knows a lot about the church already, She's always curious to learn more and she even came to church this last week. We've met up once already and she looks to have lots of potential as well. 

3. We have like 3 other people we're teaching who are named Ana, Jorge, and Martin. We still need to meet with them a little more. Cecilia and Victoria are our most progressing friends at the moment.

Nothing too crazy has happened besides that.  My toilet in the apartment decided to start leaking so a plumber will come soon to fix that #elderspisos

A week ago I tried Galician octopus for the first time.  Not something I would eat all the time but hey, while in Spain gotta enjoy the Spanish culture.

Today we went on a hike.  We didn't have to go to A Coruña for preparation day (its the first time I've stayed in Santiago on free day for 3 weeks) and so we went on a hike and got a sweet view of the city. 

Oh yeah so I forget to say how we found Victoria hahaha, it was an interesting story. In the reference we received there was only an address but without an apartment number (in Spain 90% of the population lives in apartments) and we didn't have a phone number or anything. So we got to her house and rang every doorbell and well we didn't find her. So we left a pass along card with her name with a question mark on the top on the doorstep and hoped she would get it. A few hours later she sent us a message saying hi and that she got our card hahaha. It was a huge miracle because we left the card on the door to the entrance of the building so anything could have happened to the card but the Lord protected it and it got to Victoria

But yeah everything is going super well here, we have some good friends. Surprisingly we have a very similar group of friends: Ana, Cecilia, Victoria are all college student, women, who are our age, and that speak English fluently so we have had a lot of fun haha.  It's the first time in my mission where I give more lessons in English than Spanish. 

That's all that is happening here in Santiago! Talk to you all later!

Elder Keith 

Week 67 Santiago de Compostela

Hey everyone! I'm gonna send a quick email updating you all on what's going on!

So for some personal reasons I got moved to another area after 6 weeks in Andorra.  Now I am in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia! I am still in the north of Spain and it's a super pretty area! My new companion is Elder Buttars.  He is in his training but he is a great elder and we get along super well. 

This last week we went a few times to A. Coruña a bigger city to do district meeting and besides that we have been in our area. 

We have one friend with a lot of potential who's name is Cecilia.  She is showing a ton of curiosity. She asks a lot of good questions and participates a lot in the lessons. She also is reading the Book of Mormon and praying with a lot of desires to know if its true. She doesn't have a lot of christian background but she's praying to know if our message is true so I would ask that you pray for her to receive an answer!

I'm súper excited to be here in Santiago.  It's weird changing areas after 6 weeks, but I see a lot of potential in Santiago and in the people we're teaching!

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Keith 

(Pics: me and my new companion, a  pictures of the area, and a beautiful sunset we saw from our piso, and well I found a stamp set in piso and made a stamp as a joke hahahaha. ;) )

Week 65 Mountains and Stuff

Whats up everyone! Ill Fill you all in on what's going on here in Andorra. 

Honestly, I don't have a lot to tell.  We've gone three weeks without finding a single person to teach so the work is going super super slow, but you know its God's plan. Eventually he will put the people he's prepared in our path.

In the mean time we've been meeting with a lot of members and less active members to try and build our relationship with them and get some references. Actually we've been meeting with one member who's preparing to serve a mission and practicing the missionary lessons. Recently she has invited her cousin who isn't a member to hear one of the lessons that we will practice. So we hope she will enjoy it!

We've gone to Barcelona a few times.  First to do Elder Rippey's Spanish residency and the second time to go to zone conference. Last week we had preparation day in Barcelona and I got to finish the day eating with some family friends who live in Barcelona! The next day we went to zone conference and well there were some transportation problems and we arrived 30 minutes late but it's all good hahaha.

Today we went on a hike in the northern part of Andorra.  This Saturday we receive the transfer calls and if they call Elder Rippey to serve in another area we wanted to have a great last preparation day here in Andorra for him. 

I've been studying the new testament recently as well as the Book of Mormon and I've been learning a lot. I love especially the books of John, Acts, and Romans from the New Testament. They're rich in doctrine and detail! Recently I learned that Paul in Romans 6 taught us to be baptized by immersion representing the death of Christ. Many churches today do not do that! That's is why we have the Book of Mormon which gives a second witness to Paul's words and in 3 Nephi 11 Jesus taught the Nephites to baptize by immersion.

Enjoy the pictures!

Elder Keith 

(Some pictures on the hike today, from a branch activity at the river, in Barcelona eating with some friends, and a man on Facebook who told me he hoped I would die🤙)