Week 31 Email Between Mom and Jon

Hello!!!!!! How has your week been? It was a good week, lots of visits and learning about my companion. How is the work going? Its going super well, we have a lot of people to teach and some of them aren't going to progress all the way but that's normal. What's it like working with your new companion? Its different, I think this is going to be a transfer of patience. My companion has come from the Madrid mission and so he works different. As well as he's socially awkward. So we dont get along in everything. We argue about dumb things because he always has to get his way. He just came out of training and so he is used to taking over everything and doing all the work but I am a good missionary so he doesn't have to take everything over. It's those two things that makes it difficult but we mostly get along.

 I can't believe it's almost Christmas and we get to Skype with you!  I am so excited to talk to you!!!!!
This was such a busy crazy week.  I spent the day Monday working on homework and housework because I knew it was going to be a rough week.  I went to the temple with the "ina" girls on Tuesday - Trina and Serina.  We had a great time at the temple and it really helped all of us "recharge" for the week.  Trina's been having so many problems with Anna's health and Serina's mom was having surgery that day to remove her colon and see if her cancer is progressing.  Trina's daughter has since gotten really bad - she is carting her around in a wagon and can't walk much because her rash is blistering.  Serina's mom's cancer is spreading and so they did what they could to help her but she is at the point that she could take chemo and it might slow down the growth, but Serina doesn't think she will.  So it was good to just go to the temple and feel a little peace.  We all needed it!  Yes that's super good. In the mission I've realized how we can find peace in the gospel and it's been super good. The temple is a good place to go often.

Wednesday was so much fun!!!!  It was awesome to be at the airport when Adam came home.  After seeing his brothers all come home from their missions, this was different.  I felt like my own son was coming home.  It was the sweetest reunion between him and his family and he is just amazing.  He still has a little bit of his goofy side, but he has really grown up and had amazing experiences.  Do you know that he washed his clothes by hand his whole mission??? No and I would not want to do that. He was in a whole different world.   Scrubbing by hand!   Soaking clothes in a bucket with detergent.  He's just grown up so much!  And I think he even got a little taller!!!  We went over to their house after school that day so the kids could spend some time with him and Trina brought her craziness over too.  It was crazy but it was fun.  That night James had his winter concert for band and he did fantastic.  He had 2 different solos during the concert - one on the bells and one on the snare drum.  He's a great little performer and I was so proud of him.  

Thursday James and I had our special day together.  James had ortho and I had another ultrasound that day so we just stayed in Roseville for the day.  My appt was fine - it looks like one of the cysts has gone down to almost nothing and the other one is still there.  But that is good to know! That's good it's getting better. There was a missionary in our mission who went home about a week ago because he had a cyst on his butt and so they sent him home to operate on it.  I've still had some pain but it hasn't been as bad the last few weeks so I'm hopeful.  The thing is... these cysts could just form and burst and come back.  It's just a thing that they can't determine.  James's appt showed that he is still waiting to lose two more teeth before getting his next set of braces.  He doesn't go back until April.  He really needed new tennis shoes and wanted to go to Finish Line, but I took him to Fleet Feet instead.  They did a 3-D scan on his foot and the lady had him try on two different shoes that will give him better support.  He absolutely loved one of the pairs of shoes so we got them.  He tried on orthodics too but we decided just to try the support shoe first.  I was surprised that he didn't pitch a fit and not like the shoes at all but he surprised me!  He really wanted the Alpha Boosts but after trying these shoes he was sold!  You will have to go there and have the scan done on your feet when you come home.  Yes or get some orthotics sometime soon. I feel like wearing these shoes I'm going to have bad knees by the end of my mission. All the insoles are worn out, as well as that gel one, its completely wrecked.  We did some other shopping and had a great day together.  I had my class that night and so I was gone again!  I was gone three days and nights this past week!  It is so hard to be gone so much!

I got to stay home Friday and try to catch up on life.  So much to do!  housework and homework and the kids got out early.  It was a busy day but I got a lot done.  We loaded up the truck and went to Trina's house and did all of her yard work.  Daniel and Alex met us there and we got a lot done in an hour.  We mowed, edged, trimmed hedges, raked... there was plenty to do!
Friday night was Jill’s piano recital - I’ll send a couple videos to you. And then we had the annual white elephant Christmas party. It was so much fun! I found the framed pic of James in his apron and nothing else and wrapped it up for one of our gifts. Ron was the one that opened it and then Mike Johnson ended up with it after steals and swaps. So we will see what happens with it next year!!! I want to be in that when I get home, it sounds fun! I got all the packages you sent: the Pringles, beef jerky, and phone case. Thank you lots! I have eaten a lot of it already. I received a gift from a member as well. She knitted scarfs for me and my companion. It's not a traditional scarf. It's like a big puffy necklace you wear around your neck. It's a popular thing in Europe.

Dad had to go to work again all day on Saturday and we were on our own at home.  But we got some more chores done around the house and then later I went out to YC and got a lot of things done and got away from the kids!!!  It was good to be able to run errands without Jill bothering me.  It's too hard to focus when she is with me.  I'm sure he was really busy because he didn't send me and email but that's ok, I understand.

We had church and choir and tithing Settlement today - it’s been a good busy Sunday. And your dad just took a two hour nap so I’m sure we will be up late. I have no desire to make dinner!!! We are having fried rice just for you!!!! I really want some! Looks really good!

We are gonna go do a secret Santa to the Brooks family right now. I made two loaves of cinnamon swirl bread and we are gonna drop them off on their porch and ring the bell. I hope they don’t catch us. Send me one!

I am in the middle of 3 Nephi right now. I need to do a little extra reading tonight to make sure I don’t fall behind. I’m gonna finish the Book of Mormon before the end of the year for sure!!! I'm in Mormon, I won't finish by the end of the year but I'm almost done reading it for the second time on my own.

3 Nephi 9: 13 O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?
14 Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.

I love how he says that if we repent and be converted that he wants to heal us and bless us with eternal life. It’s so beautiful to hear it from his voice personally too. He wants so badly for all of us to come to Him! He is just waiting to pour out blessings upon us. I love these scriptures. ️
Happy Sabbath day and I hope to hear from your tomorrow morning. I love you so much and am so excited for Christmas!!!!! Yes I'm excited, I'll let you know sooner up when we can Skype. We're figuring out our plans, we don't have any visits set up for Christmas as well so we have to set that up. Love you!

All my love,
Mom 

Week 31 Email

Wow I'm going to be honest... I did really bad at keeping track of what happened this last week and so I'm going to be summing up what happened today the best I can.

Tuesday I picked up my new companion, his name is Elder Crawford. He is from Idaho and has about 1 year and 4 months in the mission. He has come from the north of Spain, the part added into our mission from the Madrid mission. So he is my second companion from the Madrid mission now. He wrestled in high school and is overall a very active person. I'm glad he's here and we're going to be working together. He has a different style of work which is ok. With every new companion you have to go through a transition phase of adjusting and getting to know your companion, which isn't easy but it's what you have to do. The beginning is hard but in the end we end up just fine. We had a normal day and just did normal work.

Wednesday+Thursday:  We had a lot of good lessons. Tuesday I was without my new companion and looking at the week, and we didn't have any plans, none at all. So I went through thinking it out and set up a full week of lessons. We didn't have to contact we just met a lot of people and had some great lessons. I introduced my companion to many people we are teaching and we only had one lesson fire which is not too shabby.

Friday:  We went to Valencia and had district meeting. After we came back and had a normal day. We met with a new friend named Brahim. He is a Moroccan man, and we taught him English. In the end we shared a short message about prophets and we had a good 20-minute conversation about religion. He is Muslim and was letting us know about what some of their beliefs are and surprisingly we believe a lot of things in common. We gave him a Book of Mormon to end the lesson.

Saturday:  We had not a lot but the highlight of the day was teaching Edwin about the church. For the last 6 weeks we have taught Edwin about English and sharing small simple messages with him. And finally he became open to listen to us and just learn about the church and the Book of Mormon. Turns out he never was raised in a church and doesn't know that much but most of all he wants to raise his kids with religion and so he wants to learn more and become a better father to teach his son more. He's an amazing man and we hope to work with him more.

Sunday:  We had a normal morning with the church services and then we met with a member named Maria Flores. She has a cat and I'm allergic and so I was keeping my distance but my companion was petting it and having fun. Elder Crawford begins to get itchy and have a runny nose. He then starts rubbing his face and his eyes and looked at his hand and we had to leave. He had a serious allergic reaction to the cat. It left him with a really swollen and red face and neck, with red eyes, and hives all over. It was super extreme and so we went to the chapel and I gave him a blessing quick. He then called the church doctor to get medicine prescribed to him and we got him some meds and ended the day. He's feeling a lot better and the meds are helping, they just wear you out because its Benadryl type medicines. So he fell asleep in the chapel later that night which is fine but it all worked out fine.

That was my week but there was a great quote I heard from this last week. As we know as a church we have prophets and they receive revelation for the church. This means we always receive new changes and advice from God for the church. And so we have a 70 in our ward, a leader in the church, who saw this first hand. He said revelation does not work how most people think. Changes in the church don't come because all of a sudden President Nelson receives revelation and knows exactly what to do and just changes it. That's not how it works, it comes through ideas that the prophet presents to his apostles and then to the 70s. After they discuss it they put it to the test. For the last 5 years they were trying the 2-hour block of church in some parts of South America. For a long time they experimented on the idea and in the end we now are going to change to the 2-hour block. That's how revelation works: 1.) we receive ideas, 2.) we experiment and study the idea, 3.) we look for the results. If it brings forth good results it's revelation from God and if not it was just an idea. 

That's it, hope to hear from all of you during this Christmas season!

Elder Keith 

1. Christmas decorations 

2. My companion is allergic to cats apparently. Crazy story 

3. Small map of Gandia 

4. Beach volleyball for preparation day.

Week 30 Email

This was a great week and also a busy one! Lots of stuff preparing for Christmas and lots of goodbyes. The transfer is now over, I'm going to be now in my 5th transfer and in 4 days I will hit 7 months in the mission! Lots of exciting things. 

Tuesday: we had district meeting in the morning.  The last one of the transfer and so we enjoyed ourselves. We then came back to Gandia from Valencia and had a visit with Alberto to teach him about the Sabbath day. After we did a family home evening with some members from our ward and our friends we are teaching. It was focused on the light the world campaign the Church is doing to focus more on Jesus Christ during the Christmas season. This month of December we're focusing on serving like Jesus did, and the first week we're focusing on serving the world. So we had everyone write a letter who they are going to send to their friend or family member in another country. We're a very diverse group so this worked great and everyone liked it. We are going to do one of these every month and so we're hoping to get more people involved and get everyone involved in the campaign.

 

Wednesday: Today we met with Praise and let her know we can't keep meeting with her.  She is not completing the invitations we have extended to her and so we are still friends with her and she's still invited to read the Book of Mormon and come to church but we can't keep meeting with her regularly. Later we had some plans and they fell through but we came in clutch and met with our friend Maria. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she seemed to like it a lot. We are going to keep teaching her and see how it all goes. Later we had English class and our friend Vanessa out of know where came and gave us Christmas gifts, really early. She gave us both keychains of a bill that says Spain on it, a magnet of a Spanish ham leg, a mug that says valencia, and a license plate that you have on the wall that says Gandia. All in an American flag bag. It was really really nice of her, so very thoughtful!

Thursday: This was easily one of the best days of my mission, by far. So so spiritual.  We started with a lesson with Vanessa and a member named Liliana. Liliana is a Columbian member and she is literally the best member I have ever met.  She is so perfect for the people we are teaching. In the lesson she gave all the support and help needed to help Vanessa with her doubts and start progressing in the Church. I'm so excited to see how it all works out! And then after we met with a Columbian couple named Diana and John Freddy. And this lesson, also with Liliana, was amazing. Diana and John were crying and also Liliana and we could see how prepared they are to be here and enter in the church and the waters of baptism. It started great and then that night we met with Carolina and taught her lesson 2. She's progressing towards baptism as well and just today we received permission from the mission president to put a baptismal date on her and go through with the ordinance which is amazing. Totally an amazing lesson and just a great day altogether. 

Friday:  We started off with weekly planning. Later we taught Maria some English and a little about the Book of Mormon. After that we had interviews with the Mission President and I found out my companion is leaving! He's headed to Zaragoza to be a zone leader and my new companion will be Elder Crawford. He has come from the Madrid mission like my past companion Elder Peck and I'm excited to have him come. I have had an amazing time with Elder Tingey.  He's amazing and he's going to be a great leader in Zaragoza. 

Saturday: not much happened, a few goodbye visits for Elder Tingey and that's about it.

Sunday:  Today we went to church and then ate some Spanish tortilla which was super good. After that we met with Alberto to say goodbye and teach him some commandments. He loved the lesson and we set a baptismal date with him for the 29th of December! After that we met with Carolina and taught lesson 3 pretty simply. Recently we've been hoping to get a little more interaction from her as well.  She hasn't been reading in the Book of Mormon so we keep inviting her to do that. We hope it will all work out so we can continue towards baptism with her.

As a church we are using this initiative Light the World every day! It's been a great opportunity to serve others and share the gospel in a casual way! I encourage you all you look up on the church's website and learn how you can participate in the event and serve like Jesus did! Also make sure to use social media to publicize and show your friends what you are doing!

Everything went well! Time flies really quick! Love you all!

Elder Keith 

1. Columbian food!!

2. Dominican food!

3. Light the world fun, making gift plates 

4. Christmas decorations up in gandia!

5. The plates we put together

6. Spanish tortilla and chicken, lots of good food from the members this week

Week 29 Email Between Mom and Jon

I love my missionary!!!! I’m so excited to hear from you tomorrow! How has your week been? It was a really good week, it flew by and now I'm in the last week of the transfer. How crazy is that? How are your investigators? Theyre doing really well, the last couple days weve kind of weened out the good ones and the ones who are going to progress. How’s your companion? Hes doing super well, for a while I didn't think he liked me that much but lately we've talked about and we get along pretty well now.  What have you been studying? Lately I've been studying the book of mormon and some other principles I thought would be good to be more knowledgeable on like conversion and repentance. love Monday’s because it means I get to hear from you!!!!

Not too much to tell you about our week. The kids went back to school. I worked hard in my classes. Dad’s company had their year end on Friday so he’s gonna be super busy for a few weeks.

I got a call Wednesday that my sweet Phyllis Basham passed away. She went to sleep and never woke up. What a blessing for such a sweet old woman. I love her so much and I’m happy she is with her sweet husband now. She missed him terribly. I will go help tina dress her body tomorrow. I’ve never done anything like that before . Her funeral is Tuesday. So I have a few busy days ahead. Dad went to the temple on Wednesday and I went to the temple on Friday. It’s been amazing to make the commitment to serve in the temple more regularly. It’s not always easy and I really have to plan out my week in order to do it. But it’s such a blessing. Sounds super fun, wish I could go to the temple.  It's been a while.

Friday night our stake had a nativity display at the stake center. Our ward choir sang two Christmas songs and then the primary sang a bunch of Christmas songs. That’s why I sent the video of Jill. She sang and played ukulele with The Skousen’s daughter. They did fantastic too. The choir did as well. It was fun! Then the kids were starving and I took them to In N Out. While we were there, I had the awesome idea to do my homework “teaching” assignment with the kids right there while we were finishing our dinner. There were tons of teenagers around and here I was teaching my kids about D&C 138. It was awesome. And they were all participating. I loved it and josh mentioned later that the kids across from us were talking about going to smoke pot afterward and we were discussing the gospel. I felt like we had a little light in the world when darkness was all around us. 

Josh marched with the band in the MV Christmas parade. Jill and I went and hung with the Andrus family there. From There we went straight to the church for the ward Christmas dinner. We got there just in time to eat meat and a roll (all the other food was gone!) and the play that was thrown together was pretty much a train wreak. But James was Joseph and Telisha was Mary. And it was the sentiment that made it special. But I was happy to go home and eat afterwards .







I had a little “epiphany” today while we were listening to the Christmas devotional as a family. Here it is....
“Oh come let us ADORE Him....”

I got to thinking tonight while watching the devotional - how do we ADORE the Savior? I think most of the time we don’t think of the word ADORE in the way it is actually meant for this song.

Adore - to most people - means to regard with loving admiration or devotion and also to be very fond of. And that is good - we love the savior, are very fond of him, admire him... but that is not the first definition of the word ADORE. The first definition in the dictionary is - to worship or honor as a deity or as divine.

Did you know that? I had no idea! My feelings regarding this beautiful Christmas song have grown so much as I’ve pondered this word. I worship and honor my savior. He has blessed me more than anyone or anything else in this world can or will. And the sentence is an invitation - “Oh come let US adore him!” Happy #lighttheworld to you!!! What plans do you have for this week? We are having a ward family night tommorow to introduce then light the world event which is super great. We need to make a family plan - any ideas for us? To be honest idk, you could follow the documents the church came out with or pray about it and do a family night on it.

I’m so excited for stake conference next weekend!!!!!! I can’t tell you what a joy it is to go to stake conference. It is my absolute favorite besides general conference. And I get to hear your dad speak and Elder Hallstrom speak. It will be the best! And I get a break from crazy nursery. We had 17 kids today and it was me trina and Wendy crippen. I just about lost my mind. I had to go into the bathroom and mop up the sweat all over me - I’m seriously not lying. It was CRAZY!!!!! I came home and took a shower - yes I did! It was that bad! Made dinner immediately so we ate at like 3-3:30 and sat on the couch the rest of the night with the family. It has been a great Sunday being together. And we ate banana split Sundays for dinner/dessert. Awesome. Day.

Ok - I’ll send this one off and look forward to hearing from you. Rebecca invited me to go to the airport to see Adam come home next Wednesday. I’m so freaking excited to hug him!!!! How can it be two years already?! It will be the next best thing to hugging you because he reminds me of you 

I love you so much and pray for you every single day! I can’t wait to hear from you.
All my love!!! Mom 🥰🥰🥰love you too!! Excited to talk to you and talk at Christmas!

Week 29 Email

Only 13 more transfers everyone, which is a long time hahaha. Sorry this last week I was a little lazy with keeping up on writing so this week is a little shorter but it's ok it has all the important details.

Tuesday: I'm writing this on Wednesday so I don't remember everything that happened, but what I do remember was teaching Maria. She's a friend we're teaching English and it's been going well with her but she basically told us she doesn't want anything to do with our church which is fine. Later that night we taught Vanessa the Plan of Salvation and she really liked it.  It was the first time someone explained to her the plan God has for us, why we're here on earth, and why there is so much evil in the world. She really liked it.

Wednesday: Today we had nothing this morning and so we went contacting and we ran into a friend from the beginning of my time in Gandia named Nieve. She is Cuban and we met her in the street and invited her to church and she came but after that she never came back or met with us. We sat down and talked to her and she told us that the day we met her she was having a rough time and we found her.  She said it and like God sent us to her. She loved it as well as the church and we invited her to come back to church. Also, we gave her a Book of Mormon and wrote our testimonies in the front for her. Later we met with a member Amalia who is the first person baptized in the Valencia area. She gave us a lot of council on things.  She's very wise in gospel topics, and she thanked us for meeting with her. She says that we have to love and show charity to others.  That is the best thing we can do on the mission, which is true. The gospel is all about love and service and that's what we try to represent as missionaries. We then met with Vanessa and some members and taught them English and then shared a small gospel message. We focused on prayer and the story of Enos.  Our goal with Vanessa is to have her make her prayers very spiritual. With all we teach the most important thing she can have is a spiritual witness that it is all true.

Thursday-Saturday:  Sorry I did really bad at writing this week.  I'm just gonna sum it all up real quick. Thursday we met with Vanessa and taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ. She's progressing well and she's feeling recently that she's meant to be here with us. She never received the lessons before and now with us she feels like it might be the time to get baptized and join the Church. She's doing super well also.  That night we met with Alberto. Alberto is progressing super well.  We taught him the Word of Wisdom and law of chastity and he took it all super well and accepted them. We're going to change his baptismal date to a week later because he's progressing but not as fast as we thought which is ok. Friday I did an intercambio in Valencia with Elder Murillo. He is from Ecuador and it was my first time being with a native Spanish speaker as a companion but I really liked it. I never thought having a native companion would be fun, I have always thought I would go crazy not being able to speak Spanish but I actually enjoyed it. It helps me better my Spanish a lot. Anyways we didn't do much Friday but Saturday we went and taught an English class to a Columbian family. This was a weird lesson, so first off I was with Elder Murillo who doesn't speak English so I had to teach the whole hour lesson myself. Also mostly we teach basic English and they all were kind of intermediate so I was so lost as what to teach and so I threw something out of the air and taught how to ask questions and they didn't know it and they loved the lesson which was totally great. I was kind of freaking out inside but it all turned out well. We then finished the day with stake conference. Sunday we continued with stake conference and all the missionaries sang in the conference which was super fun.  It was kind of improv as in we practiced it like an hour before starting the conference but it all turned out well. After that we came back to Gandia and visited a member named Maria Flores and then met with our friend Maria to teach her English. 

That was all I'm feeling super great and loving the mission. Thanks for the emails and I hope to hear from some of you I haven't heard from in a while. 

Elder Keith 

1.  Community of Valencia Flag I bought the other day. Every region in Spain has it's own flag.

2.  Biggest marathon in Spain happened this last Saturday in valencia 

3.  Went to the beach for preparation day 

4. Weird chino store finds.

5.  Public transportation in Spain gets a little busy.

6.  Christmas decorations up in Spain!

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Week 28 Email Between Mom and Jon

It's a long email, I'm gonna respond in the email to answer it all!

Wow.... this week has flown by, but it's also been so slow!  So I think I told you that last weekend we made all of these plans to go to Fresno and then I had to cancel them last minute cuz I got so sick.  This was just a nasty nasty cold that went to my chest.  Then I got really weak and queasy on Tuesday - just like the boys did, and that lasted a day or so.  I think we all got sick cuz we couldn't go outside and do anything.  And we just sat around and breathed each other's air.  We just kept passing around illnesses.  It was a bummer cuz I really wanted to go see my family, but I just couldn't.  I am still coughing.  I'm so done with this sickness and I'm over having the kids home all day.  They need to go back to school!!!!  Crazy stuff wow! Here they gave all us missionaries flu shots because they dont want us getting sick, I didn't want it but oh well it was mandated. 
We still had the missionaries for dinner on Tuesday.  I tried to get someone to take them for me but no one was available.  By that night I was feeling a little better and I had put the ham bone in a crock pot so we had plenty of food.  They are such great guys.  Elder Gunsay is going home Tuesday and Elder Kelsey is being transferred, so we will have two totally new Elders this week.  They have been awesome missionaries for our ward.  They text me yesterday and picked up Josh and took him to visit two sisters.  He was so great about going with them too.  He didn't get all mad or annoyed that I told them he would go.  Maybe he is growing up a little??? Sounds great, I wish I went out with the missionaries before. It will be a big help for him I know it.t I am really gonna miss those boys!  I hope our next set of Elders is as hard working and great as they were.  I don't know why, but it is easier for me to "connect" or relate to the Elders easier than the sisters.  They have a really large area because of the Hmong community that they service, so they are all over the place all the time.  They found a less active member by going through the white pages of the phone book and calling all of the Vang's - seriously!  I've never heard of missionaries doing that before. 

I submitted my application for BYUI this week.  I expect to get an email in the next couple of days saying I am admitted into the online degree program.  Then I will meet with a counselor and find out how many of my 64.5 credits will transfer and what I need to do to finish my degree.  It's an overwhelming thought!  Balancing school and family is not easy!  Get your degree fast when you come home.  It's not worth it to go back to school later in life.  Well, it's worth it, but it is just hard!  So learn from my mistakes!

Thanksgiving was great.  The food was great.  The turkey was the bomb.  And I made awesome homemade rolls.  If you want the recipe I will send it to you.  They are really easy to make and would be a great experience for you to learn how to make them.  I didn't make any pies tho.... I just wasn't feeling well enough.  So we decided to make homemade ice cream instead and everyone loved it.  We spent the evening watching 3 super corny Christmas movies and just doing dishes all night.  Then Friday we were supposed to put up all of the Christmas decorations, but we didn't get very far.  The tree is up, but no ornaments yet.  The lights are on the house!  Yay!   Fun stuff we dont have any Christmas decorations hahaha we just kinda wait till Christmas comes around to talk to our families. I dont know if president will give us a time limit, he hasn't let us know yet. But it will happen. I wonder if we can get grandpa and grandma in the call also or if they will be there already at the call. No idea!
And I took all of the stuff off of the cabinets in the kitchen and washed everything.  But we just have to get out the boxes of decorations.  It's a daunting task to think about since I haven't been feeling well.  But if we don't do it tonight, I'm sure Jill will have a meltdown.  She was throwing up on Friday night and I was up late into the night and was too tired to do much on Saturday.  But she is feeling better now. 



I didn’t take many pictures this week.... sorry!!!

I used the talk by Pres. Nelson called "Thanks Be to God" for family night on Monday.  I really loved this talk because it talked about the spiritual, physical and gospel gifts that we all have been given because of the Atonement.  I loved the quote, "The attributes by which we shall be judged one day are all spiritual.  These include love, virtue, integrity, compassion, and service to others."  I don't think I had ever thought of my own personal judgment being dependant on the attributes that I develop in mortality.  I don't know why not, but the way he worded it, and the way it was explained was very profound to me.  What a blessing it is to have a prophet that is so enlightened and who can explain things in a way that touch my spirit and make me want to become a better person.  I love our prophet!
How has your week been?  It has been super good recently. I've hit a point of confidence in the mission, I'm comfortable in the language and in the lessons and now I can be myself more. It was a long busy week but it's a good thing. I kind of miss getting a personal email from you too.  Our FB convos don't really allow me to post anything from a personal email to the blog (although I am 3 weeks behind right now.  I'm hoping to catch up tonight).  Make sure you add in your email something that you studied this week that helped you or helped someone else.  I am getting excited for Christmas and the opportunity we will have to talk to you!!!  That will be fun!  Adam comes home Dec. 12 and we will have him come over and talk to you too.  Just not the whole time.  I wonder if your Mission Pres. will give you a time limit or if he won't care too much?  No matter what, I will be so thankful to hear your voice and just talk to you!  We had Austin Haymore don't remember who he is! speak in our ward today.  He just returned from his mission to Bentonville, AR. and he gave an amazing talk.  He is so much more grown up and it sounds like he had an amazing opportunity serving in Arkansas.  He said he was constantly defending the Book of Mormon and he really got to know the scriptures so well.  He sounded like he was an amazing missionary! 

Keep up the hard work and let me know if there is anything else you need or if I should just send the package.  I have another one or two things to collect and I'll ship it off the end of this week. 

I love you so much and pray for you every day.  I know you are having amazing experiences!   Share some of them with us and let us know if there is someone we can keep in our prayers for you.

Last week I learned a big parenting tip which was "to change the actions of someone its better to teach the doctrine and let them correct it themselves".  It's hard to fight someone who isn't doing everything right but we all have the light of Christ which let's us know when we should correct things in our lives and be better people. I like it and maybe it could help with Josh to really sit him down and go over why we don't date early and about missions. It's an awkward thing for him but it could be good. 
All my love, Son!  I miss you so much! Love you too and miss you!

Week 28

Hike today!! We hiked the local mountain with my bishop which was amazing, some great photos as well!!

Super great week everyone! We had lots of visits and lots of miracles truly a great week.

Monday, we had P-day in Valencia and we had a big Thanksgiving lunch with all the zone. We all brought our assignment and had a very traditional feast with turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, apple pie, stuffing the whole thing. It was super good and we just spent the day playing sports and then we went to Llaollao yogurt for dessert. 

Tuesday we had district meeting and then had an intercambio with the zone leaders. I went with Elder Hurst and we had a few visits one being a visit with an Uruguayan family who made us fry bread with dulce de leche. We also drank mate together which burned my mouth really bad and we shared a message about prayer. Prayer is really just a conversation with God, and it can be compared to a sandwich. Bread is the name which is on the top (how we begin with words such as Heavenly Father) and the bottom (we end in the name of Jesus Christ) and then everything in the middle is what you chose whether it be meat (thanks), cheese (bendiciones), lettuce (questions), etc. It's really easy and you just say what comes to your head. After the lesson we talked and I took the time to really explain some of the feelings and doubts to the zone leader to get some council and he helped a ton which was relieving. 

Wednesday we came back from Valencia to Gandia and we taught a recent convert named Jose about the restoration again and he's super great. The first time I met him and he's so knowledgeable of the scriptures it's amazing. Then we taught English class and only one person came but she is amazing. Her name is Vanessa and she's from Ecuador. And we just taught her the alphabet and during the lesson she just asked us questions and opened up to us as she became more comfortable. She told us how she knows about the church and had a Book of Mormon and is totally down to meet with us to learn more about the church which is a miracle. Truly blessed recently and its been incredible.

Thursday, we taught an English lesson to a woman named Maria. She's super great and after the lesson she was totally open and curious about the church so we ended up teaching her lesson 1 about the restoration and she seemed to understand very well and we gave her a Book of Mormon which she loved. She looked at the book like it was made of gold she just started flipping through it.  She truly loved, it was a great experience for all of us. Then we taught Alberto our friend with a baptismal date. We taught the doctrine of Christ to him and he took it very well. We're helping him have a spiritual experience to know that the church is true because he's learning a lot and he likes the church but one thing that's key is their spiritual confirmation of everything. After that lesson we went to the Good Burger to celebrate Thanksgiving with 2 hamburgers and then we ended the night  peacefully. It was a quick day but a good one nevertheless. After the exchanges with the zone leaders I have a new desire to work and be positive in the work and it's been a really great time, a very happy couple of days. 

Friday, we taught Praise again and we had a tough lesson. We have invited her to do many things and she's not keeping her commitments such as reading the Book of Mormon. She's super great and has a lot of faith in God but we can't do much to help her if she doesn't keep her commitments and progress. Later we had a lesson with Vanessa who we taught English and then answered her questions about the church. She has a lot of interest in the church and so tommorow we are going to teach more English and lesson one to her. She's super great, truly a miracle in our lives, we get along super well and she even brought us some apples on which we wrote a message which is super nice of her to do. After that we met with Francisco, we taught English which frankly he's not very good at but being with us has brought up a lot of interest in what we believe and we hope to meet him tommorow to teach lesson 1. He's very very Catholic but we have a lot of beliefs in common so I hope that will make him more interested in our message. We finished up the night planning for Sunday and the next couple of days. We are trying to make Sundays a day to pass by members and meet with less active members. It's a very bad day to contact and meet with friends but most members are open on Sundays.

 

Saturday, today was super super packed wow so much went on. We started by teaching Eduardo. We didn't get a lesson out but we answered a big question of his which was who is God. He's been wanting to know and we shared some stuff from the Book of Mormon and also the talk from conference called "The Father". He really liked it and we invited him to be baptized and he says when he knows this is all true he will for sure do whatever he needs to be baptized which is a step forward. Then we ate with a member named Benjamin. He's an odd man, he's from Holland, speaks English with us, but served his mission in Bolivia and speaks mostly Spanish and he made some weird food. He made this pasta that was pasta, chicken, mushrooms, boiled eggs, and corn with soy sauce. Just I don't even know and he was like I don't know if It turned out right. In the middle of eating he just stopped and said I'm sorry elders but I'm not eating it this tastes horrible hahaha. And he didn't but we went for seconds because to be honest, it wasn't that bad.  He was just mad at himself. It was all good and we left there laughing. We then taught Maria a lesson of English and then about the Sabbath day and invited her to come to church which she accepted. We then passed by some recent convert's home to celebrate the birthday of one of them and we ate 2 pieces of cake. We left there quick and taught a lesson to Vanessa about the restoration. It was super spiritual and she felt it as well. We left her with a Book of Mormon and the invitation to read it and pray about it. She accepted happily, it's been so cool to see how from doing an English class we can have found a humble woman like her willing to listen to our message. We then went to the same recent convert's house which we were at before and ate more cake, but a different type. Which is way too much. And then I finished up the night in a members home and taught them the doctrine of Jesus Christ. And they gave us pizza. I have literally eaten so much junk food today I feel wrecked. I ate a fat plate of pasta, 4 pieces of cake, and some pizza. All from members. What a day it was just insanely interesting and busy. 

Sunday, we had a good day, started with church and we had some good friends there in church.  One of them was Paco our very catholic friend. When we got to Gospel Principles class he decided to argue with the teacher about doctrine which was very embarrassing for everyone and for us especially as missionaries. So that was that, then we ate a super good paella with a member. After that we struggled to find things to do but we had a miracle. We had only one plan in the afternoon and we had to go to the chapel to do it and when we got to the chapel we just had a miracle. We get to the gate and there's a member there and she goes - Elders I have a reference for you. They're a part member Columbian family who want to be baptized and united in the church, literally amazing and then we set up a visit with them for tonight and it and the best. Just a huge miracle package. We met with them that night and taught they're friend Carolina lesson 1 and she's gonna be baptized I'm sure. She received all the lessons in Venezuela and so she's been ready but we have to go over it all again to be sure but she's super prepared which is incredible. 

Thanks for the emails everyone, I love to hear from you all and see pictures!! It was super great week. You're always in my prayers.

Let me know if theres any questions!

Elder Keith 

1.  Amiga gave us apples with a special message: it means "the good things always come late" idk why she put that on there but I like it.

2.  Little lizard we found in the street.

3.  Thanksgiving last week 

4.  American candy.

5.  So my parents can see I'm still practicing piano hahaha

Week 27 Email

It was a short week again everyone I hope everything is going well especially for all my friends in California with the fires!

Tuesday: today we taught a few more lessons and had a visit which was pretty great. We visited a woman in the ward who was the first person in the Valencia area in Spain to be baptized.  The very first one and she just told us her whole story of the church growing here in Spain in this area it was so cool. Shes 85 and is still strong in the church, all we need is more members like her honestly. After we taught a lesson to Eduardo our friend from Venezuela. He has always been curious about the church and he asks us a lot of questions but the problem was he wasn't receiving the spiritual side to it and he didn't understand our purpose and missionaries. So we taught him the first lesson and made sure we explained very well what we believe and that he needs to ask God about the Book of Mormon and our message to see if its true. Because if what we teach is true that means God is showing him the right path to take and that he needs to continue in the church not just learn a lot of info. It was a good lesson and we are going to meet him on Friday for a family home evening with a member family so I'm excited. Then we taught Edwin English and then shared a short message about prophets and why they're important. Very simple, we're just slowly working on the gospel with him and he is taking it very well. 

Wednesday we taught Praise the Nigerian woman again and taught her about the Book or Mormon. We read from the talk the Book of Mormon what would your life be without it from President Nelson which is super super good. I encourage you guys to read it.  It's from October 2017. We are trying to help her realize how important it is to know that we are the only true church on the earth and we know that through the Book of Mormon. We then taught Pedro which was a man I found on Facebook. We met with him to teach English. He told me before that he knew some English and he basically speaks English but he can't read and write so we taught the alphabet and most importantly the sounds they make so he can start getting ahold of that. We then taught our friend, other Pedro who we are teaching about the gospel. We taught a lesson with a member named Arturo who's is a returned missionary of about a year I would say and he totally helped us teach. He's Spanish and so he can so simply explain the topics and so Pedro really learned and understood a lot. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ  And in the end of the lesson he asked us how long it takes for someone to be baptized and that's all we were looking for. He truly feels the power and truth of what we teach and so he is on track towards baptism.  We haven't set a date yet but he's progressing to that point. We are progressing a lot and teaching more with some awesome people!

Thursday we has first district meeting in Gandia it was pouring! Like a lot which made me so glad I have an umbrella, it's seriously a lifesaver. Then we ate at the Good Burger with the district which was bomb.  Every Thursday you get 2 burgers for the price of one and they're amazing. Best burgers in Spain, level with some from the US to be honest. Then we split up and went on exchanges and I spent the rest of the day in Valencia. We didn't do too much except teach an English class. That night we hung out and just talked and then grilled chicken on a George Foreman grill his mom sent him that day through Amazon. It's very interesting to me missionaries are not very good at managing money.  That's something I learned in college and high school and I'm glad for it. Most missionaries blow through they're monthly money and always are scrapping for food by like halfway through the month. 

Friday, we ended the exchange in the morning and then went to the Fitzgerald with the Viñas. Elder Viñas was a member of the 70 for about 20 years and so he's very knowledgeable and very nice. He took us to the Fitzgerald which is super good and very expensive hamburgers.  They drop like 10 euros on every burger it's too much but he was kind enough to pay for us. It was super good.  After we taught Eduardo our Venezuelan friend and we had another good but tough lesson, we didn't even get a lesson in all we did was answer all his questions. He's a very curious man and sometimes he jumps too far ahead and misses the important info and so we had to help him understand the story of the Book of Mormon and how it makes sense why we have it and he committed to read it and pray about its truthfulness. Honestly he's a very good man, very fun to be around and very honest, always goes through such his commitments and so I think little by little he will learn to enjoy the church and find the knowledge and answers he's been looking for here. 

Saturday an English class with a 74-year-old Valencian man named Paco and that was an interesting class. We taught him English and he told us all these things about Christ and how he is very Catholic and so we just served him and let him go without sharing a short lesson. To be honest he's a little crazy so we will see where this all goes. Then a lesson with praise first who we read from 2 Nefi 31 and talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We invited her to come to church and she said she's going to come so we will see. Then we taught Brian a convert of about 8 years in his country of Uruguay. He was baptized but moved to Spain and now feels like it's his time to get his life together and come back to church.  He has a big testimony of the Book of Mormon and he's very motivated to come to church. Because he had a big pause without the church he's relearning a lot but that's ok and were helping him out. We then finished with Jorge and Adriana who are recent converts and taught the plan of salvation. Very long day but very good and we invited a lot of people to church so we excited. I also am starting to see myself more relaxed in the work. I am at a point in the mission where I'm adjusted a lot and I am comfortable in the language and so I can be more of myself and more confident and its comforting and helpful in the work in lessons, contacts, and with members it's a lot more natural.

Sunday, we had church and 5 friends in church again which is fantastic. It was a good service with the primary program. It was different because it's not like normal talks but the primary program is all focused around basic doctrine which helps out our friends in the church a  lot as they learn more. Then we walked around with a friend named Joaquin  and talked and got to know him better.  He really doesn't have friends and so we as missionaries minister to him and be his friend and invite him to learn more about the church and better his life. We met with Alberto and answered some of his questions about the church quickly. He is progressing a lot and he's been coming to church which is fantastic. After that we had an eating visit with a member who made us arepas which is like a thick tortilla with chicken and vegetables inside. They were good and now we're headed to Valencia to stay 3 days. Tomorrow we are doing a service project and after a big Thanksgiving feast with all the missionaries and then we are staying there 2 more nights for other plans we have!

That was my week and I hope you all have a great week as well. Send me emails and pictures I love to hear from all of you and keep Spain in your prayers as recently it's been raining and flooding all over the country. 

Love you all,

Elder Keith 

1.  Kebab, delicious I wish they had it in the US but it's super bad for you

2.  Murals in Valencia 

3.  With all the district and some more missionaries 

4.  Been raining a lot this last week in Gandia 

5. Other church propaganda. It's very interesting to me what other churches put out. It's very very out there in my opinion.