First week in Fresno!

Sorry that there have been so few emails from me, In the almost 3 weeks I have been out, I have only had two preparation days, counting this one. 

The last week at the MTC was good, but we had two health incidents in my district. The first was one of the sisters in my district, Sister Crowther. She was having bruises for no reason and had to go to several doctors to have her blood drawn and tested. She had to go home and be released the last day of the MTC, so that was no bueno. The second health incident was a seizure by Elder White. He went to the ER and was tested, but he was okay, and is in the mission with me. I wasn't able to go to the last Tuesday devotional because no one in my district or zone wanted to go, including my companion, and I couldn't go all by myself. We were taken to Salt lake on a bus, and then flown into Fresno on a small plane. There were 18 missionaries, only one of them was a sister.

My first day in the mission field was good. We went through office work, and then went outside and did something called open your mouth. I was paired with Elder Withers, my current zone president. We taught some members that we found, and then taught some ladies that were drinking. We also got yelled at by some satanists, so that was cool too. We invited one person to be baptized and they said yes. 

We ate dinner at president Clark's house, and then had a testimony meeting type thing. We slept at the assistant to the president's house. They parted our hair, that's the official hairstyle of the mission.

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 We went running in the morning and then went back to the mission office.

We did some more office work, and watched some safety videos, and eventually we got our trainers.

My first real companion is Elder Perkins. He is from Colorado.

​please excuse the bad picture quality, I haven't been using my camera very much.

My companion and I are in Selma, a fairly small, mostly Hispanic town. A lot of people here only speak Spanish. I don't speak Spanish much at all. We are the only English missionaries in the area.

We don't have very many investigators which are progressing, but we have taught several lessons and are trying to find new investigators. We are also helping recently baptized members to stay strong. Selma is an awesome town.

It is pretty hot here, and the air quality is terrible, because of the largest wildfire in California. Selma is "famous" for its raisins. Most of the people are catholic. It might rain here today, for the first time in months. 

I have learned a lot on my mission, but the biggest things that I have learned is the importance of being a good leader, being obedient, bearing testimony, making lessons personal, asking for referrals, and working hard. I am practicing talking to potential investigators, and helping them become progressing investigators.

The food situation at my apartment is pretty bad. I opened a "new" box of oatmeal, and then ripped open a packet and poured out maggots. That was fun. I am helping improve the situation though.

Elder Keeley