Week 58 Caixo! (Hola en Basque)

June 23, 2019
Hey everyone how's it hanging?

This week went by quick, lots of good visits and some sweet miracles!

-This last we practiced with the branch choir and had a great musical number in the branch conference. We had 75 people from the branch attend the conference! (Which is enough to be a ward) so were hoping to have all these people stay and keep attending. Maybe we just need to do more musical numbers with the choir!

- We had a few great visits with our friend Paula who is going to be baptized this weekend! We finished teaching the lessons and we've seen a ton of progress from her. Her father isn't a member and we got to meet him in the hospital the other day because he was sick. He's opening up more and more to us. As well as we had a visit in their home and they made us dinner and another day they took us out to a Latino bakery and bought us empanadas! They're the best and it's been so fun to meet with them 

- We've been losing contact recently with our friends Julio and Patricia.  If you could all pray on their behalf that would be great!

- We had a super big miracle this last week!  On an exchange with my zone leader we went to a small town to pass by a friends house and passing right by a hospital and we meet an American woman who's a member! She called is out saying "elders!" And then she asked us for a blessing there on the spot. So we went to a members house to give her the blessing. It was a huge surprise and we were put right into her path which was definitely not a coincidence. 

-Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! I had a great birthday.  I got to take a nap hahaha and members bought me a pizza and ice cream so I was pretty happy. Today as a district we went to a lighthouse to celebrate together my birthday. 

-Today is Saint John day and everyone makes little bonfires on the beach to celebrate. Left smelling like smoke after walking by them and it reminded me of going camping before the mission!

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Keith

Week 57 It's been a Minute

June 17, 2019
Hey everyone it's been a while since I've written an email, I'll fill you in on what's been going on...

- Friend-wise we don't have a lot of people to teach:

Julio isn't progressing much and I believe this next week we are going to stop teaching him because little by little he has stopped meeting with us and completing the invitations we extend to him.

We have our friend Patricia who took a huge step and left her weekend job so she can come to church!

And this last week we saw a huge miracle with a less active member who sent us a message saying that she wants to baptize her daughter as fast as possible. Her daughter is 10 and has been waiting for her father's permission to be baptized and recently she received permission! So the 29th of this month we are going to have another baptism.

- The branch is doing good.  This next week is branch conference and so me and my companion have been practicing in the choir to sing in the conference. (Also this Sunday the 23rd is my birthday ;) so if you want to send me an email that would be awesome.)

- We haven't had too many crazy experiences.  One day we found a Honduran couple who invited us over to eat in their house a day after meeting them in the street. They weren't that interested in the church but hey they made us some good food hahaha.

We had some members take us to a castle in the their car 15 minutes from their house after an eating visit which was sweet.

Also we had a random person who had a temple as their profile picture on the app WHATSAPP so I had the opportunity to tell her what the building in her picture was Haha!

I've been made district leader recently which means I plan district meeting every week. I've been focusing the meetings and the lessons on Christ and his missionary example he set for us. One of the best Christlike attributes we can develop is charity and Elder Oaks in a  talk from October 2000 said:

The reason charity never fails and the reason charity is greater than even the most significant acts of goodness he cited is that charity, “the pure love of Christ” (Moro. 7:47), is not an act but a condition or state of being. Charity is attained through a succession of acts that result in a conversion. Charity is something one becomes. Thus, as Moroni declared, “except men shall have charity they cannot inherit” the place prepared for them in the mansions of the Father (Ether 12:34; emphasis added).  The talk is called the "Challenge to Become". I encourage you all to read it.

Have a great week everyone. This Sunday is my birthday is you want to send me a birthday email! And some pictures!

Week 55 Hace Calorcito

Hi everyone sorry I don’t have time. I recorded a voice note to sum up my week! Hope to hear from you all!

Elder Keith 

I transcribed a little bit of what he talked about in his voice note….

This is the first week with his new companion.  He is from Utah and has 6 months in the mission.  He speaks very good Spanish and is a very fun missionary. 

They didn’t have anyone to teach, so they spent a lot of time contacting to find people.  They are teaching Julio still, but he didn’t come to church.  They are going to find a morning this week to teach him and hope to have him come to church this Sunday.  They found a few other people to teach -  they went to a store to buy Mate and this woman stopped them and said her name is Patricia and her sister got baptized in Paraguay last year.  She would go to the lessons and church but was never baptized.  They made an appointment to meet with her.  They helped her move into a new house that is closer and still in their area.  They got to know her better and she seems to have a lot of potential to progress.   She works on Sundays, but she said she is leaving that work soon so it will help her be able to go to Church on Sundays.  It was her choice!

Jon is now district leader which means that he makes sure everyone is ok in his district and he will have a meeting with everyone each week and give a talk to them.  He feels that his first meeting turned out really well and he was happy with that.  He talked about what it means to have the name of Christ on your nametag as a missionary and how we can become more like him and be a representative of His teachings.

They went to a castle today for p-day and had a great day.

Week 54

So we had transfers again and I'm staying in Las arenas but I received a new companion today! His name is Elder Gurola. He is from Utah, he has been in the mission 6 months and this is his second area. He has a lot of energy which is going to help us a lot here in Las Arenas!

This last week we had a few visits so my last companion could say goodbye to members and we ate a lot of good food. We had bandeja paisa, tamales, papa rellena, and sopa de mani! Lots of different and new foods but super good, I'll include a few pictures in the email.

We have been working hard recently.  Our friend Julio is progressing really well. He almost came to church this last week. He came to the church building 2 hours early and he called us to ask us where we were at and we told him church didn't start for a few hours and he left and went home hahaha. He almost came, I believe this next week we will get him to come and on time. 

We saw the baptism of our friend Juan Felipe. We set the date for the service on Tuesday so we spent the whole week running around preparing everything for the service. It all turned out fine, we had a good amount of members come to the service and it was very well put together.

Not a whole lot of time today and not a lot to talk about but I hope to have more to tell you all next week!

Elder Keith 

Week 53 Tú Tranquilo Vale

May 20, 2019
Hey everyone I had a great week with a few fun experiences and some good lessons with our friends

-One of our friends named Julio accepted our invitation to be baptized. Hes been reading the Book of Mormon and loving the lessons we've taught him and so he had the desire to be baptized, we just haven't set a date. He still needs a little more progress, were helping him come to church to that he can get to know some of the members in the branch. 

-Our friend Juan Felipe is set to be baptized in a few weeks. He is a son of a part member family we've been working with and he's set to be baptized soon! Tomorrow we meet with him and we will try and set a date for his baptismal service. 

- We had a miracle happen this last week!  A recent convert sent us a reference for a few people that wanted to meet with us. So we got in contact with them and met with them. Turns out one of them is a member and the other one isn't. So we found a member who wasn't in our books who we're helping come back to church and now were teaching her friend too! 

- We met with a man from Lybia who gave me a Quran for free and a book about the basic beliefs of Islam. Just some good souvenirs from the mission and all the different people we teach. 

I watched a great video this last week that we shared with a friend who claims to be atheist. It's the story of a man who came to know that God exists. It's super spiritual and I invite you all to watch it. 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/video/inspirational-messages/2014-07-006-the-hope-of-gods-light

Have a great week!

Elder Keith 

Pictures from preparation day and zone conference