The beginning of the exchange life.

One of my friends, Elder Anderson (in hong Kong) has 6 missionaries in his zone. We have 10 in our district. This means that I have the oppurtunity to go on a lot of exchanges. I love exchanges. An exchange is where I will switch places with another Elder in my District, and work with them for around 24 hours. It is a great tool for teaching, and a great way to get a feel for the district.

This week I went on an exchange with Elder Arebalo, and Elder Maas. I went to Dinuba and Reedley. 

It is a lot of fun to work in a different area for a while, and see how other missionaries work. 

My companion Elder Stojka is a lot of fun to be with. He has been serving for just under a year. He is from The Jersey Shore area. He was is a convert to the church and was baptized when he was about 13, this means that he has a lot of great experiences that he is able to relate with investigators about how he joined the church. He is hilarious and appreciates my jokes as well. 

The district Book of Mormon challenge has been fun as well. It is really easy to give away a Book of Mormon to someone, and it can lead to great things. It's important to follow up with the Book of Mormons though, It doesn't do us very much good if we do not testify, and then teach the people that we give the book to. Also, if they do not read it. We had a few neat experiences this week with following the spirit.

Elder Stojka and I were coming back from a leadership meeting, and I felt like we should go to Wendy's and get some Frostees. I wouldn't normally do that because I don't like spending money on fast food, and we have ice cream back at our apartment. We went to Wendys and after coming out of the drive through we found Brother Bundy. Brother Bundy is a member who's children we baptized back in December. We haven't seen him very much since because he is working a ton. We were able to have a good conversation with him, and he is thinking about making some changes so that he can work less. He also gave us some bread, because he is the bread delivery man.

 We also were able to have a couple of neat experiences where people asked questions such as, why are there so many churches? We were able to answer those questions with the restoration, and as we did so, the spirit was very strong. We will be going back to share more good news with those people this week.

Minerva has been going to temple prep consistently. The Kinnys and Sister Lawson came to church on Sunday. Sister Larson is slightly less active and in a part member family. The Kinnys are a part member family. They both live in Kingsburg, and it was great to see them at church. Sister Lawson has been coming fairly regularly since we found her in Kingsburg. I was able to confer the Melchizedek priesthood upon Alfredo and ordain him to the office of an Elder on Sunday. It was a really neat experience. 

Everything is going well. My district is awesome.

Elder Keeley

Picture 8/29/16

This is Elder Stojka. I think that only one picture can fit in the Blog per email, so I will just send one a week I think. Sorry about that. I will eventually send a whole bunch 

Crazy Adventures in the Snow

I had a crazy week this week. On Tuesday I was on splits with the Hammonds while Elder Mangum went to Clovis and President Clark called us and said that Elder Stojka would be joining us in Selma. The Hammonds and I taught Minerva while we waited for him to arrive. Minerva just started Temple prep this week, so she will go in about 6 weeks most likely. 

Elder Stojka arrived, and then Elder Mangum got back a little while later. We were suddenly a tripanionship. Obviously the thing to do in a Tripanionship is to go on splits and work twice as much. Elder Mangum was feeling better, so we did some work. 

Later, on Thursday Elder Stojka and I were driving to Hanford for a leadership meeting when President Clark called us again. He told us that Elder Mangum would be transferred to Kings Canyon. We had our meeting, came back, and then Elder Mangum packed up. We visited a few people and then he left. 

Elder Stojka and I are companions now. He has been out for just under a year. He is hilarious. We have been working hard and having a great time. 

We had our first district meeting thing on Saturday. It was super good. We made a district goal to give out Book of Mormons and it has been excellent so far. It is a productive way to talk to someone, and a powerful way.

We helped an Hispanic family move on Saturday. It was pretty good as well.

Brother Bolin came to church on Sunday with his wife. It was exciting. 

We are making some progress with the Miller family and the Zamora family. The Zamoras are adjusting to being back in school, but Jerry is reading, and they should be coming to church regularly shortly.

Elder Keeley

Transfer week

It is another Transfer week. I am staying in Selma, but I have also been called as District leader. Elder Arebalo and Elder Strommen are training. Elder Matienzo was transferred across the street to Reedley. Elder Lamoreau and Elder Collins are going elsewhere in the Zone. It should be lots of fun to be district leader because there will be 6 Elders that I have to go on exchanges with in about 4 weeks. I love exchanges. We have 8 young Elders and a senior couple in my district. The Selma District.

We were able to have 4 people come to church on Sunday, 3 of which are less actives, and one of their friends. In our area right now we haven't been able to teach or find as much, but the Lord has been blessing us with referrals from Members. None have turned out yet, but it is keeping this area flourishing. We have a lot of families that we are teaching that are filled with potential. Our investigators are reading and praying and some are even coming to church. We should have a very productive September.

We weren't able to see the Zamoras or the Millers this week because they both went on end of Summer vacations. School has started over here, but it's still very hot.

We had a ward home made ice cream party this week as well. Brother Preston works at Fresno State in the Chemistry department so he brought some liquid nitrogen. It was fun, the blew up a bowl on accident.

Things are really good here.

Elder Keeley

Exchanging for days

This week was a good week. It was very different from a normal week. On Monday we went to Sister Thursten's 87th Birthday party for a minute. We got a whole cake from it.We went to the Temple on Tuesday. It's always the best to go to the temple especially as a missionary. On Tuesday Elder Mangum and I went out for a little while, and Elder Mangum paid for it the next day. On Wednesday we worked with Brother Smeaton and had Missionary correlation meeting. On Thursday I went on an exchange with Elder Collins. We teamed up with Alfredo and saw a lot of people. It was lots of fun. On Friday I mostly just weekly planned. On Saturday, I went with Elder Strommen and we worked in both English and Spanish. We prepared a girl named Messiah for baptism, and we taught a lot of lessons. We ended up at a Mexican baby shower party. We got some Mole'. It was the best Mole' that we have had so far. We saw Minerva. She will reach her year mark on Tuesday. She will be able to go to the Temple soon. 

On Sunday Messiah was baptized. Our investigator Connie also came to church.

Our investigator Robert Miller pretended that he went to Vegas withj his wife and got married. We will help him actually get married soon.

Elder Mangum is getting healthier.

Love,

Elder Keeley

Zone Conference and Leo

I had a good week this week. On Monday Elder Mangum and I went out biking, and he got two flat tires. Goat heads are the enemy. I have been lucky so far with no flat tires. We taught a member home lesson. The next day Elder Strommen and I went on exchanges. It was really fun teaching in Spanish with him.We taught a lot of people. I like Elder Strommen. Wednesday Elder Mangum wasn't feeling well, so we did a lot of planning and preparation for MCM. We taught one lesson with Brother Smeaton, who returned from his surgery.

I thought that Zone Conference was fantastic. I felt the spirit a lot, and learned a lot, and it changed the way that I teach the restoration. It made me more excited to teach it. I teach it show that God still talks to us, and that he can answer our prayers.

I went on Splits with a 19 year old named Leo from the Spanish Branch the next few days. I think that it was really good for him, and got him fired up to be a missionary. We found two new investigators together and one of them came to church. His name is Fernando. He is from Georgia and is really polite.

We had a powerful lesson with the Zamora family where we learned of some of their concerns. We had the Robisons and the Hammonds there. The spirit was very strong. The two younger Zamora boys most likely will not receive permission to be baptized anytime soon, but we should baptize Kevin in August or September. He finally read his scriptures like he should. 

In an effort to help the people that we teach come to church, I have been studying page 20 of the 12 weeks book, revelation through church attendance. It has 6 main reasons for why we go to church. I think there is really 7.

They are: 

To partake of the sacrament and renew the covenant of baptism. For those who aren't baptized it is good practice, and gives them a chance to reflect on the Atonement.

To show our faith in the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy.

To receive the promised blessings from keeping the Sabbath day holy.

To learn and build our testimony as we are taught the gospel.

To receive revelation from the spirit that is found at church.

To build fellowship and learn from other's testimonies.

The other one that I think is key is that:

It gives us a chance to serve and build our conversion by helping and teaching others.

It is cooling down quite a bit this week. The air quality is awful. 

The Dinuba missionaries had a baptism on Saturday for some people that are coming into the English ward. 

I got to be in the confirmation circle even though I don't know them that well. Elder Arebalo called me up to hold the mike, but the Bishop gave it to the executive clerk and I joined the circle instead. It is a neat feeling and a great privilege.

Love,

Elder Keeley

Tiwi Picture

We unplugged Tiwi today.

It was killing our battery. Our Tiwi was also broken.

It is a short lived Victory.

Tiwi doesn't solve the problem, Tiwi is the problem.

We had permission.