A Wet Week

We were able to baptize Tonia this week. I was able to do the confirmation for her. She is super awesome, and has really grown a lot in the past couple of weeks. She is truly converted, and loves to repent. 

We were able to receive a lot of great people to teach from the ward this week. There was a neighbor, The Castro family, that came to the Trunk or treat, several kids that invited their friends to the primary program, a super awesome lady named D that the Martinez's daughter invited to come to church that came, and the faucet family from a member in Fresno.

The Martinez family and Eddie are both committed to live the word of Wisdom fully starting tomorrow. It will be a great challenge for both of them, but with God's help they will succeed. They both have baptismal dates for the 26th of November, just after thanksgiving.

We weren't really able to see Sherrie this week because she was busy.

We have been finding a ton of new investigators every week here in Tulare, and have a great month all set up.

Love,

Elder Keeley

district picture

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Temple picture

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Picture 10/31/16

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Zone Conference

I had a good week this week. We had a lot of blessings. Our investigator Tonia came to church again this Sunday, and now she is all set for her baptism on Friday! I'm excited. We were able to have Sherrie come to church as well. She is progressing very well, and has a date for the 5th of November.

We were able to find a lot of investigators again this week, and have been having a lot of success in our area. We will have an occasional hard day where no one is at home, but it is becoming less and less common. 

On Tuesday I went on an exchange with Elder Derbidge. He is very interesting one. He was very good at using his scriptures when we taught a lesson.

On Wednesday after my exchange with Elder Derbidge, Elder Atkinson and I worked in the Sister's area for the afternoon. We found them well over 20 new investigators in about 5 hours. 

I went on an exchange with the zone leaders. I mostly worked with Elder Walker. He likes to find. We talked to a few people.

We had Zone Conference this week. That's always a lot of fun. 

We've had a lot of success in helping people come to church while I have been in Tulare. This week was our worst showing, but we still had 3 people come. It's nice having people come to church regularly.

Elder Keeley

Better picture

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Zone Conference

I had a good week this week. We had a lot of blessings. Our investigator Tonia came to church again this Sunday, and now she is all set for her baptism on Friday! I'm excited. We were able to have Sherrie come to church as well. She is progressing very well, and has a date for the 5th of November.

We were able to find a lot of investigators again this week, and have been having a lot of success in our area. We will have an occasional hard day where no one is at home, but it is becoming less and less common. 

On Tuesday I went on an exchange with Elder Derbidge. He is very interesting one. He was very good at using his scriptures when we taught a lesson.

On Wednesday after my exchange with Elder Derbidge, Elder Atkinson and I worked in the Sister's area for the afternoon. We found them well over 20 new investigators in about 5 hours. 

I went on an exchange with the zone leaders. I mostly worked with Elder Walker. He likes to find. We talked to a few people.

We had Zone Conference this week. That's always a lot of fun. 

We've had a lot of success in helping people come to church while I have been in Tulare. This week was our worst showing, but we still had 3 people come. It's a nice change.

Better picture

picture 10-24-16

Here is Elder Tongish.

He is sort of Tongan, but not really.

10-17-16 Pictures

I found this on exchanges with Elder Matienzo. It is Elk and Beef Jerky.

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Fuel the find

I had a great week this week in Tulare.

On Monday our district meeting was a lot of fun. We didn't successfully communicate the location we would meet at to the Elders in Lindsay, Elder Lopez and Elder Derbidge, and they arrived around 40 minutes late. They were able to participate in the last training that I gave on using the Book of Mormon introduction to teach the restoration, but that was about it. They got to have a cookie still. We weren't able to do to much on Monday afterwards, but we did find a less active member that lives in Reedley's son.  

On Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Matienzo, my favorite Bolivian. He has been doing very well in Tulare, probably the best in his mission. We had some good success, and found a new investigator, but we accidently bible bashed (sort of) a Jehovah's witness in Spanish.

On Wednesday I went to Fresno for District Leader council. That is one of my favorite meetings that I go to as a missionary. I was able to learn a lot of things to bless my district, and to be a better leader. We did some family History with Tonia when I got back. Not much happened in Tulare while I was gone. Tonia is set to be baptized on the 28th of October.

On Thursday we taught an old German lady, and were able to meet with the Cervantes family. They were going out of town for the weekend, and missed church.

I really learned a lot this week about prayer. I had a few neat experiences. I was joking around with the Sisters in my district telling them that they needed to find us a referral (I tell everyone to give us referrals, it works). They told me that I should just pray about it. On Saturday I prayed for a referral from the sisters, and also that we would be able to reach our goal for new investigators. On Saturday we found one new investigator, not quite the goal (still good though), and we didn't receive a referral from the sisters. The next day we were able to reach our goal of four new investigators (we found 5) and we were able to receive a referral from the Sisters. They had been visiting a member in Lindsay and dwm-ed her or something (basically asked her who had the Lord put in her head for us to teach). The member asked them if they had the phone number for the missionaries that were in Tulare west (us). She had a person for us to teach. We haven't received the call yet from the member, but the Sisters are following up today.

We were also able to teach the Martinez family with brother Cox. We taught them about being agents unto themselves. They came to church again, and are still working to quite smoking. They plan to be baptized on the 27th of this month, but will need to quit smoking first.

We also had Eddie come to church. He is doing pretty well.

Elder Keeley 

Bike Trouble in Cow Country

I had a great week this week. We started off our week with a bang, teaching a media referral that had previously been studying Islam. he had lived in Utah previously, and it went pretty well. We were able to find several new investigators this week. 

We had quite a bit of bike trouble this week. Elder Atkinson wasn't sure what a goat head plant looked like, and he ended up with two flat tires. He borrowed a bike from the Spanish Elders. My bike was pretty good, but I switched into first gear to go up a hill, and my derail-er got caught in the spokes and got bent a little. I also borrowed a bike from the Spanish Elders. Elder Atkinson also crashed into a fence on his borrowed bike. We are getting our car back today. It had a dent in it.

On Thursday I went on an exchange with Elder Lopez, to Lindsay. It was super fun. We found two members at different times.

One was an inactive member that was living in a hotel. She is just about to move into an apartment in town. She was on the ward directory, but had the wrong address listed. Both companionships in Lindsay had just recently been looking for her.

The second was a recent convert that moved from Bakersfield. She didn't know that the church was in Lindsay as well. The Lord builds his church in mysterious ways.

Probably our best investigator right now is a lady named Sherrie. She is the leader of a female Christian biker group. She just had rotor Cuff surgery like Brother Smeaton, and so she can't drive anywhere. That makes it easy for her to read her scriptures, get taught by us, and come to church. She has come the last three weeks (counting conference.) 

We have been having great lessons with her. When she hears something new, she will ask for scripture references, and then prayerfully study them.

The ward has also been on the ball with her. They team up with us as we go and teach her, and they even help her when she can't do things because of her arm. They give her rides to church. She has a date to be baptized on the 5th of November.

Tania was sick this weekend, so she won't be able to be baptized this Saturday. We will have to move her date back a week. 

We are also working with the Cervantes family and the Martinez family. The Cervantes family was almost baptized, but they reseived some backlash from their old church and their children. They are still reading and meeting with us, but they missed church this week. 

The Martinez's are working on giving up smoking. They want to be baptized, but they have to be smoke free for at least two weeks first.

My new district is awesome. There are five companionships, including the one leaders and a pair of Hermanas. Elder Matienzo and Elder Lopez are both in this district with me. 

Love,

Elder Keeley

PS, this is just dairy country, instead of Raisins. They make protein powder cheese, and milk of course.

Picture of Old district

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Tulare Time

I have been adjusting to Tulare well. We had a lot of people watch conference this weekend, and we have a few baptisms coming up. Down here Word of Wisdom problems are more prevalent with our investigators. They are all pretty good at coming to church. Elder Atkinson is pretty good to work with. He is a good missionary. Our apartment is very nice. I am still the District leader of a district leader with 5 companionships. No senior couples this time. That means the exchange life continues. We meet in 3 different wards now though.

I really enjoyed conference. I know that the General Authorities really do have the Priesthood Authority. They are called of God.

God loves us.

I also got to go to a baptism of the Zone leaders. They are in the district.

The Area here is a lot smaller than Selma. We still have the country side, and we reach the southern boundary of the mission. We also cover Pixley and Tipton.

Elder Keeley

pic of Elder Atkinson

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