Week 19 Email

If I'm honest these are the only pictures I took this week.... also no picture with my new companion 

1. Very touristy picture of the heart statue in town 

2. Columbian family made us fried chicken, ribs, and French fries this last week. Was in love <3

I have no idea what week I'm on anymore, I'm gonna guess 14 but who knows...

Anyways this last week was shorter with preparation day on Tuesday so not a lot happened.

I did get my new companion! Its been so great with him I'm really excited to work with him. He is from Logan Utah. Has about 1 year in the mission. And he actually came from the Madrid mission. So all the north of Spain was added to my mission last transfer and he came from Galicia a part from the north. And the difference between the two missions could not be any bigger. It's so different with him. He's very quiet right now, we're still breaking the ice. He was in his last area for 7 months so he really misses it there and it's hard for him to adjust. But the way he works is so fantastic. So a lot of the rules between the missions are very different and I'll just say the Barcelona mission is like 10x more strict than Madrid. So there's been a lot of adjusting and compromising done to help him morph into the mission but it doesn't stop him. One thing I've learned to do with him is use Facebook to find people to teach and it's so helpful in an area like Manacor. We find that contacting in the street here is basically walking like 2 miles straight talking to like 5 people. It's not too successful most days so we've been finding people through Facebook to teach and this last we have received over 10 potential people to teach which is amazing. I'm excited to see what we do this transfer!

This last week not a lot happened like I mentioned. Wednesday and Thursday like nothing happened at all. Just a lot of contacting except Thursday we taught Brillian, our progressing investigator. We taught him the plan of salvation which helped him a lot.  He believes in reincarnation so we based the lesson off the common beliefs of life before and after this life and he loved it! We also gave him a baptismal date which he accepted for the 13th of October which he accepted. And I'm sure he will go through with it. 

Friday we had a district meeting and I met the other new elder in the district. He and his companion and are complete opposites Haha so I'm wondering how this transfer is going to work out. Friday night we also taught Brillian for a second night in a row! He loves the lessons so much he just wants to meet every day. So we taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ which is basically: faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. And he loved the lesson again. Truly he is an amazing man. He also shared how he wants to bring his whole family to the church he loves it so much and so he has brought his brother and sister to church with him and now his brother is taking the lessons as well in Palma which is amazing!

Saturday we helped clean the chapels then we taught an English lesson to a Muslim man named Hassan. Let's just say this man is ripped like super ripped. And my companion loved it so they talked about working out a lot and got along super well. Also, he picks up new languages super quick and so he learned a ton. I was super impressed and then we shared with him a quick message about the church and let him on his way, we have another lesson set up with him for a week from now so I hope we can still keep working with him. Then after that lesson, guess what we did... we taught Brillian again, 3 nights in a row! Seriously he's incredible. We taught him some simple commandments and then laid some bigger ones on him. First, we taught him the word of wisdom which he already lives basically so that was no problem. And then we taught him the law of chastity, this one we have to work on. He told us some stories from his past that were frankly pretty gross having to do with this commandment and all I can say to him is repent and move on, he's doing really well and so I think he will work it all out. The surprising thing is how sheltered we are as members as the church that I never realize how bad the real world is, like wow it was surprising to see but he's truly a changed man and so I think he will move on.

Sunday was normal, my companion gave a talk on adoration in a technology-filled world which was really good. And then today we didn't do anything except relax and the normal things like clean and buy food for the week.
A very relaxed week but a good one. I was thinking more about the lesson about enduring to the end with Brillian. In Spanish, it translated to "perseverar hasta al fin" which basically means persevere until the end. I really like that translation because the difference persevere and endure is interesting. To me to persevere is a better way to work till the end because it means to work through and stand in the hard times, pushing through it all, when endure is more like sitting and letting the hard times hitting you but not moving. It's not a bad way, but to persevere really brings more blessings. 

That's all I have for this week. Keep it cool everyone and send the emails and the prayers this way. Love you all!
Elder Keith 

Week 19 Email to Mom

Lots of stuff is going on!

So my new companion is Just kind of quiet right now, there's still ice to break. He misses his Last area a lot, he was in his last area 7 months so it's a big change. He very nice though and funny, we get along really well. We have been using Facebook to do missionary work a lot lately and we've been having a lot of success with it. He has such a different way of working than my last companion, and not to bag on my last companion but it seems to be more successful and enjoyable in my opinion. He's great I think I'm going to enjoy my time with him a lot.  

I haven't listened to anything from this Richards guy but I'll look him up. Thanks for the email, no one emailed me except you and dad this week.

Love you!

Elder Keith 

Week 18

1. The font we use to do baptisms in our Capilla, we used a classroom to put the pila in.

2. The table we set up at the service. 

3.  Me and Antonio who I baptized and my last companion.

4.  Us eating with the Hernandez family.

5.  Package my mom sent me:)

1-4. Pictures from the cathedral right next to the apartment where I live.  Finally entered in but sorry I have no idea what any of it means.

Wow, what a week it has been, actually 2 weeks I'm sorry but I didn't send an email last week due to some technical problems. But I will fill you all in on the details. 

So 2 weeks ago all we visited with a new investigator named Brillian. He is from Venezuela and he is a golden investigator. So Brillian was actually a reference from another elder in Inca. He found him on the train and sent his number to us. He has been wanting to investigate the church for quite some time now.  In Venezuela he saw many of our churches but never entered and always wanted to know about the church. And now years and years later he had the chance to enter into the capilla and see the church. We showed him around and then we taught him a lesson. We taught him lesson 1 which is about the Restoration. We taught him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and he loved it all. I've never seen someone light up so big when he heard about what we believe. He truly loved it all and it was everything he wanted in a church. Now we have another great man learning with us and we think this man has serious potential.

This last week not a lot happened, we basically planned for the baptism of Antonio all week. So Tuesday I was on intercambio and I got super sick, I still am sick today. I had a fever that night and for 2 days after that and now I have a cough real bad. Anyways I was sick but I still had to work which is the worst but I did and so I called Antonio to confirm his interview for the baptism and he said he couldn't do it..... we were freaking out and so I made a lot of calls and fixed the interview for the day before the baptism on Friday. This is very risky because if he doesn't pass the interview there's a lot to clean up.  Wednesday was the same just more planning and normal contacting.

Thursday we planned a huge baptism! We put the program together and set up the baptismal font which I sent pictures of. It's a little ghetto font we use but it does the job. 

Friday was the interview and he passed! Then we filled up the font. Also, we don't have warm water to fill up the font so it was a cold baptism. 

Saturday was the baptism! It was a great program, it was super powerful. We brought all the elders from my district to do a musical number. We had the baptism which I performed in Spanish, and I only had to do it one time;). And then we confirmed him that day as well because he couldn't come to church the next day. And he was the happiest man I've ever seen.  He was crying after he received the Holy Ghost and was just praying saying thank you thank you. Super great day and then that night was transfer calls... and my companion has left Manacor. Sad to hear he's a great missionary but I'm excited to work with my new companion Elder Peck! He is from Logan, Utah, has about a year in the mission and came from the Madrid mission actually when they added a coruña a part from the north into our mission. Sorry, I don't have a picture with him yet but his name is Bradley Peck, look him up on Facebook Haha. And so now I'm here in Manacor with my new companion.  We picked him up today. And that was my week.  Oh, also I sent pictures from that cathedral I live right next to! We went inside Monday to finally see it and it was super beautiful but super confusing. You all can see the photos from that. 

Thank you all for the emails and prayers I appreciate it all a ton! Keep them up and if you have any questions let me know. 

Love you all!

Elder Keith 

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Week 17 Elder Keith Sighting

I received a text from someone!  I don't know who they are but I was thrilled to see my son was out in Palma for his P-day and someone took the time to chat with him and send a picture home to me.  Thank you, random stranger!!!

Week 17

1.  Castle I visited today in Palma

2.  Gardens around the castle

3.  Some of the beautiful streets in Palma city 

4.  Port in Palma city 

5.  Me and Elder Rupa 

6.  Empanada from a member visit

7. The member who made the empanadas.  The picture has me, my companion, our branch president, and the inactive member.

8. Seafood soup our Columbian members made for us, it had little octopus, squid, mussels, clams, and shrimp. Super different but not bad.  They put so much salt and cilantro in it I didn't notice the flavor at all.

9. Manacor from a tall building 

10.  Me and Elder Hughes on exchanges

11.  Picture from the train of what like 80% of our area looks like, basically looks like central Cali

12.  Chinese shirt 

13.  A giant bottle of kool-aid one elder made for a district meeting 

Sorry everyone in pretty sure my group email disappeared again, idk my phone is having some dumb problems lately. Until next week, I have no time to email so I can't make it up.

Week 16 Email to Mom and Dad

Only 2 more weeks in the transfer and either me or my companion is leaving! Not much time seriously every week is going by so fast. This week coming up we're going to do 2 exchanges, one is in Inca and the other in Palma with the zone leaders. It's going to be a busy week. I'm doing fine, idk what else to say really. I've been very tired lately, been trying to go to sleep early and eat more and things like that to bring back energy.  I think I'm continuing to lose weight, not a whole lot but I think I've lost about 15 pounds since I've been here. We generally only eat about one good meal a day, breakfast we drink a smoothie, lunch is our big meal, and I basically don't eat dinner. It's a weird schedule honestly. I've had some weird food lately, some chicken liver and beef face just recently. Also, I'm noticing that Spaniards put boiled eggs in everything idk why. Even foods where it doesn't make sense, they just say put an egg in there and make it more complete hahaha. My Spanish is coming along really well.  Me and my companion decided that we are going to speak Spanish the most possible all day except at night in piso before bed. It's only been less than a week of it but I'm sure it's going to help a lot. There's a challenge going around in Europe called the Book of Mormon challenge where for 21 days we are inviting people to follow a calendar with scriptures and questions.  I highly encourage you guys a family to do this the next 21 days after you find it. If not I can send a link with the calendar in Spanish. Dad can help with that. I saw you guys ate tri-tip and I got so sad I won't have anything like that for 2 years. I miss that food a lot. I sent a letter home about a week ago in the mail so it should come soon, look out for that. If there's any questions or so let me know! Love you

Elder Keith 

Week 16

Alright, 2 more weeks in this transfer and either me or my companion will leave (we think). Seriously every week is passing by so fast.

This transfer will finish my training so I'm almost a full-fledged missionary out here. Honestly, I don't feel like I'm in training I'm pretty adjusted but technically I still am.

This week was more busy but not as busy, we had more visits thank goodness but still struggling to find people to teach. We have a big area as everyone can see in the picture I sent but here's why it's really tough:

1. People work more than ever during summer here - like they're workaholics.

2. The public transportation on this island is horrible.  We have a schedule we follow as missionaries and the bus schedule conflicts with this a lot, so about 75% of my area I can't visit.

3. The area is so big that even if we find people in some of these areas to teach they may never be able to come to church.

If anyone gets the picture we're in a pickle here.  We've tried talking to the president about bringing a car here and he said all he can offer us at the moment are bikes which wouldn't do a lot.

Please pray for us to find ways to find people and bring people to church.  We're seriously in a hole and in 2 weeks one of us is gonna have to take over and figure it out.

We've tried also to fix the way we contact people. We've realized that we've been out in Manacor town so many times that people don't even look at us or talk to us. The other day we wanted help with a map and we asked a man for help and immediately without even knowing what we are saying just shuts us down. All we want is help with the map and after chasing him down and explaining it he was the most kind person and helped us without thinking about it. Obviously, there's a problem here, so how are we solving it? We're putting ourselves out there as English teachers. It's a more casual way to set up visits with people and that way slowly we can work them towards the gospel and so far it's working. We had 4 visits this last week of English classes that were fantastic. People see that English is useful and so they come and learn from us and with warming up to us we share a quick gospel message with them at the end and they're totally open to it. So that's what we're working on now, we are always looking for new people to teach. 

Also, our friend Antonio from Honduras is going to be baptized for sure the 15th of this month!! He's literally the most prepared and faithful man we have ever met. He can't read so we bought a speaker and he's listening to the Book of Mormon in his free time. We taught him all the commandments and he's already living all of them, even before we taught them. Even tithing, he basically taught us what tithing is. He lives in a help center because he's homeless and doesn't have fixed work just temporary jobs and even with the little money and work he has he's willing to pay tithing. Just incredible truly amazing. We have 2 more lessons to teach and then he's all set to be baptized so stay tuned you guys. The 15th will be the baptism, my 4 month mark in the mission and transfer calls.

Honestly that all that happened this week, today we went to a rotisserie chicken restaurant today and ate that, literally they have shops for just rotisserie chicken, and that was really good. That's about it. Also, my companion was made district leader so we have 2 exchanges set up for this week which I'm excited for. 

If theres any questions let me know! Please send emails throughout the week I love to hear from all of you, even family I haven't heard from in a while. Love you!

Elder Keith 

1.  So this is a picture of the island I serve on.  Everything to the right of the pink dots is my area, basically half the island, its giant, this is why we need lots of prayers Haha.

2. Cooked some fried rice this last week that was so good, sometimes we go all out on meals because we have to try different things.

3.  Scriptures I posted on Facebook that not everyone saw.  They're some of my favorite about why bad things happen to people, why we can't blame God.