Last One

I had a good and exciting week this week. I had my final interview with President Mackay.

We met and taught a girl named Justine for the first time this week. She know's that the Book of Mormon is true, and believes the church is true. She jsut has to take care of her ranch in Oregon on Sundays, so she hasn't been able to go to church yet. She goes to the institute building a lot. 

This week I emailed Sister Mackay my part of my Testimony. Here it is:

​My testimony is very deep, but also broad. With this kind of thing I like to share the parts that are most important.​

I know that Jesus Christ is the son of God. He is the lamb that was slain for our sins. He is our Lord, and our Master. He is our Savior and Redeemer. He is also our exemplar and teacher. He is our advocate with the Father. I know that he created this world for us. I know that he loves me and that he understands me.

I know that God has a perfect plan for me. We lived with God before this earth was created. God wants us to be happy, and to be like him. 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is real and true. I know that it works everytime. I know that it allows us to become more like our Savior. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ is True. I know that the Authority to act in the name of Christ is here. I know that Joseph smith is and was a prophet and that Thomas S. Monson is the Lords living prophet on the earth today.

I Know that the Book of Mormon is true. I have been richly blessed by feasting upon it. 

I know that God hears and Answers my prayers. I know that the Holy Ghost is real and comes from God.

I know that I can live with god again.

I've got to get going, I'll see you next week.

Love,

Elder Keeley

Last picture

​From the Zoo

Olga's Baptism

I had a good week this week as well. This week I got to go up to Olga's baptism. 

Olga's baptism was super cool! She had a ton of spiritual experiences to get to the waters of baptism. I also learned that Keith is doing really well up there, and found a place to live. He might get baptized sometime in the coming weeks.

In the YSA we had some good adventures as well. On Saturday Elder Strommen, Kloepfer and I had the opportunity to help out at the multi stake YSA conference, and we helped all of the YSA do the #bookofmormonchallenge. I got to meet President Gelwix, he is a really cool person.

I also go to see Lydia Scott and Mark Modesto this week, I haven't seen both of them for a long time.

We started teaching a girl named Jessica this week as well. Her Brother was baptized a little more than two years ago, and is currently on a mission to India. She kind of just lost contact with the missionaries.

We also started teaching Savannah this week. She was taught by Elder Sparks in Heritage ward. Our Investigator Evin came to church for the first time this week, but we will have to hand him off to the Fresno East missionaries, because he lives outside of our stake.

Manny is still chugging along at his own pace. Cecilia is all set to go to the temple in about a week.

OH! We also had Zone Conference this week. I gave my departing missionary testimony. It was a neat experience as well. I bore a simple testimony about some of the core doctrine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that Christ paid the price for our sins, and that he lives again. I know that he is the son of God. I know that God loves us and hears and answers our prayers. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and that this really is the True church of Jesus Christ. I know that living the Gospel brings us lasting Joy.

We also had the opportunity this week to receive a blessing from our Bishop concerning missionary work.

Love,

Elder Keeley

Also: I didn't actually go down to Selma for KK's baptism last week because she was just 6 and 7 when I taught her, but I might go to Liza's when she get's baptized.

Olga's Baptism picture

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MLC, Exchanges, and more

My baptism of the week was a girl named KK. She is the 8 year old daughter of a lady named Liza. Liza was an investigator of the Spanish Elders in Selma. She was taught the entire time that I was there, and most of her children were baptized. KK was just 6 though, so she had too wait. I taught them a lot on exchanges etc... especially when Elder Mangum was sick. She wasn't technically my investigator, but it was still neat.

We had a pretty good week in the YSA. On Tuesday We had MLC. It was fun, and we had an interesting discussion. We learned more about goals and about using the Book of Mormon.

On Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Assistants. That was a good experience as well. It was probably my favorite exchange with them.

On Thursday we went on exchanges with Elder Bishop and Elder Jensen. I went with Elder Bishop. It was fun to be with him. We were able teach several people that we'd never taught before.

On Saturday we were able to team up with Nick for a while and we found 3 new investigators. We have been working a lot with Manny. He is progressing quickly, but he still isn't ready to accept a baptismal date.

Love,

Elder Keeley

kk's Baptism picture

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Baptism of Jim, Alex and Cecilia

californiafresnomission@blogspot.com - This is the new California mission Blog url

I had a good week with a great weekend of baptisms.

We had the Baptism of Cecilia in the Fresno Ysa, Alex in the Yosemite ward, and Jim in the Mckee ward. It was a great weekend for baptisms. We have some more planned for the next few weeks, so stay tuned. 

We had Manny and a new investigator named Lina at church this week.

Here is some more of the story on each of the people that were baptized this weekend.

Alex lives in Merced. Elder Gray and I taught her because her sister Vickie is with a Miian member of the Hmong branch named Chio. We figured that even though she is Hispanic, she was basically Hmong and decided to teach her. She had been taught in the past, but never got baptized. She wasn't interested at first in being taught, but we told her we would just read the Book of Mormon with her. We did that once and then began to teach her. She says the turning point for her was when we told her that baptism was the gate to heaven, and she was standing outside of it. 

Cecilia is a 16 year old, the Sister of Manny who is another one of our investigators. She was being taught by the Spanish Elders with her mother, but then her mother stopped being interested, and she started meeting with the YSA missionaries with her Brother. They have a really tight bond. She has a really strong testimony. We got permission from the Bishop, Stake president and Mission president for her to join the YSA.

Jim was taught by missionaries for a long time, about a year and a half. He didn't want a lot of people coming to his baptism, So I'll send you a picture when I get it. He had a lot of member fellowship on his journey into the Lord's church.

The Fresno Zone as a whole had a good week as well.

I went on exchanges with Elder Kloepfer this week, and we had a really good time together. We were able to visit several people, and we found a new investigator for the YSA as well named Evin.

I was studying the Index under the Jesus Christ headings some more this week and as I read about the spiritual gift of knowing that Christ died for us. As I thought about that after reading a lot of scriptures of Christ's death I felt the spirit teach me that that is why the prophets speak of Him so much, to help us receive that gift. It has been a great experience to study him

Love,

Elder Keeley

Picture of Cecilia's baptism

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Picture Of Alex's Baptism

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Joe Noya Baptism and the YSA life

My first week in the YSA was lots of fun. At the beginning of the week Elder Sparks and I were in a tripanionship with Elder Ennis. Elder Ennis is training. He was trained by Elder Nelson, who was trained by Elder Strommen, all in Selma.

We were with him until Thursday. He was fun to be around.

On Tuesday we had a Shaved Ice Party (Shave Ice for Elder Mountford). I got all sticky, but my shirt stayed clean.

On Wednesday we took Elder Ennis to the Temple. We went to Fresno College and talked to some crazy college kids.

On Thursday we trained the Trainers, and then ate lunch at the mission office. Elder Ennis left us, and we got to work. We teamed up with a guy named Nick. 

Our best investigators right now are Manny and Cecilia. They are a Brother and Sister. They have investigated for about a month. Cecilia is all set to be baptized this Saturday. Manny is close as well, but he doesn't have a baptismal date yet. He has a few things that he is working out.

On Friday we weekly planned, and then worked some more. We spend a lot of our time trying to find Less active members of the branch. There aren't really very many part member families.

On Saturday we had a Pioneer day party with the Whole Stake. There was a fire truck, and a lot of games and food. It was fun to be with the whole Zone.

In the evening I went down to Tulare for Joe Noya's baptism. While I was down there I learned that the Sisters had baptized Junior Martinez as well. They didn't know who I was, so I wasn't able to go to that one. Junior moved to Porterville, so he hadn't been confirmed yet.

On Sunday we had Manny and Cecilia at church. There was about 50 YSA members attending. It's still a ward though.

Love,

Elder Keeley

Joe Noya Baptism pictures

​My Camera died at the Baptism. Hopefully another person will send me some more pictures. Thanks for the Picture Elder Thornton!​

picture #3

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picture #2

​There was a fire by Legrand's house

Finally Fresno YSA

We had a really good week here in Mighty Merced. We were able to find well, and have a lot of member present lessons as well. We found a lot of cool new people. 

Instead of going to the Zoo, this week we went to Castle Air Museum in Atwater. We got to see some really cool planes.

This week I learned that I am being transfered to Fresno YSA to be with Elder Sparks. I've never served in a YSA before, and I've never really served in Fresno, so it will be an all new experience. It sounds crazy.

Sister Kinny from Selma was baptized this week. I wasn't able to go to the baptism, but that got me really excited for the week. the Kinny family is awesome.

We started more officially teaching Raven this week. She is Eva's daughter. She came to church last week, and has started going to YW. All 3 of Eva's daughters will be baptized eventually.

We did studies with the Atwater Elder . 

We were able to have the Raes come to church again this Sunday. Jim, and an investigator named Joaquin came as well. Olga did come, and she had a really hard weekend. She needs some prayers to help her reach the waters of Baptism.

Joe Noya will be getting baptized this Saturday in Tulare. As the summer moves forward, a lot of the people I have had the privilege of working with are reaching the font.

Love,

Elder Keeley

Gare Bear the Second

Elder Woodmansee and Elder Wright baptized Gary Crandle. I taught him on exchanges one time. 

Elder Millburn and I had a good week this week. We went on exchanges with Elder Richardson and Elder Morrison. They were both lots of fun to be with. 

We were able to teach Sister Raygoza's husband Napoleon this week. He is really cool. We helped him see how he could build his faith and then repent. 

We had some really good lessons with Olga this week. She is set to be baptized on the 22nd of July.

On the Fourth of July we went to Brother Baladad's home and played Risk with the Yosemite Elders.

We also had interviews with President Mackay. My interview with him lasted about 30 seconds. He basically told me that he had already met me at Stake Correlation and at MLC.

Olga had a neat experience with living the Word of Wisdom. In the past any day that she didn't have coffee, she would have a killer migraine that could last a few days. When she finally gave it up for good it was a very easy experience for her. She didn't get any migraines since.

It was pretty warm again this week, but the Truck has a good air conditioner.

Elder Keeley

picture 7/10/17

I didn't take an overabundance of pictures this week.

The New President

I had an eventful week this week. On Wednesday we had our last Zone conference with President Clark. It was a pretty good one. Elder Toombs and some Sisters sang a really good song. President Clark shared his final teachings with us. I felt spiritually uplifted by it. 

On Thursday I went on an exchange with Elder Nesom. We went out to Planada and Legrand. We found an old burned out house that was listed as the home for a member.

Elder Nesom is a Canadian. 

On Friday we were able to go down to Fresno again for MLC. We were able to meet PResident Mackay for the First time. He is incredible. He is really humble. I really liked MLC. We had more of a council with all of the leaders there. We focused on using the Book of Mormon as the Sickle. Elder Christofferson taught that the Book of Mormon is the Sickle.

We found a really cool Tongan family this week. They all moved to Merced a few months ago from Los Banos, but had still mostly been going to church over there. They are all members, except for an uncle named Philip that we started to teach.

We had five investigators come to church this week. Olga, Jim, Keith and the Raes. Olga and Jim will be baptized soon. We are still helping Keith get more stable. The Raes are doing well, but the kids are not sure if they want to be baptized yet.

On Sunday we had Stake Correlation with President Mackay and President Schofield. It was a really good meeting as well.

One of President Mackay's simplest and most profound teaching at Zone conference was helping every "meeting" in the church become a revelatory session. He really emphasized the importance of relying on the Spirit in all that we do. We don't always have to try and be even more exactly obedient to have the Spirit. Sometimes we just need to seek the Spirit and rely on its promptings as we do this work. I have really seen that on my mission. Sometimes it is easy to get carried away with working hard, but when I have really stepped back and sought the Spirit in the work that I do, it has always gone better and been more successful. It is an interesting thing that we can work really hard and get almost nothing, or we can work with the Spirit and be richly blessed.

Love,

Elder Keeley  

picture 7/3/17 President and Sister Clark

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Mormon Bar

I only put one picture at a time in these so that it can be seen on my blog.

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The Last week with President Clark

The last few weeks before President Clark is gone are packed with great experiences. We had a temple trip this last week. A lot of the Tulare ward was there because Griffin Yentes was getting his endowment before he takes off on his mission. We are getting Olga prepared for her baptism. We are excited for that.

We had a really good lesson with the Raes. They haven't come to church for a while, but they are both reading the Book of Mormon really well. They haven't accepted a baptismal date yet.

I went on a really good exchange with Elder James. We had some good conversations about setting goals that help us to stretch. That is one of the biggest reasons that we have goals.

Elder Millburn went to Porterville and I was able to be reunited with the Tripanionship. Elder Wright and Elder Woodmansee and I taught a lot of powerful lessons.

We gave about 5 blessings this week. It was a spiritually powerful week.

Our finding has kind of been slower than we would like it to be, but we are reemphasizing planning at night to find better.

We went to Yosemite today with Brother Baladad. He is awesome. We hiked up to Vernal Falls.

Sister Barragan finally was able to obtain her temple recommend. We are excited for her. Shaundra should be able to go to the temple soon.

The Tates have been coming to church. We helped them move their stuff for a little bit. 

We had Keith and Jim at church this week. Olga had to go to the hospital the night before. We gave her a blessing. She was healthy by the next day.

We also had a good lesson with Brett this week. 

We have Zone conference and MLC this week. It should be great.

Elder Keeley

Temple Trip July 2017 Merced

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Yosemite trip #2

Elder Millburn and I went to Yosemite with Brother Baladad. We hiked up to Vernal falls and got soaked. It was super fun.

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Baptism of Eva, Morgan, Skyler, and Eugene. Last interview with President Clark.

I had a super Good week this week highlighted by the baptism of Eva, Morgan, Skyler, and Eugene.

It was fantastic. Keith came, and so did a lot of other non members and investigators. I baptized Eugene and Skyler, and then confirmed Morgan the next day.

It is going to be a very hot week.

We had our last interview with President and Sister Clark. We played a jeopardy game while we waited.

We had Brett come to church for the first time this week. We haven't been able to teach him for a little while because he is in the Marines. 

We also had Keith Come again. We got him a white Shirt, and a pair of Pants. He came to the baptism as well, but he still doesn't have a place to live, so we can't baptize him yet.

Olga went to church in The Bay area. She will be baptized soon.

I gave Elder Millburn a haircut.

Love,

Elder Keeley

6/19/17 Baptism! Eva, Skyler, Eugene, Morgan

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Elder Millburn

Elder Millburn is my new companion. It was a pretty good week. We will baptize Eva and her family, along with Eugene this weekend. 

We also had Jim come to church this week, and we found Gracie's records.

All of the new missionaries that came into the Zone are awesome.

Here is the Testimony that I sent to President Clark for our final interview with him.

The Things that I know to be true by the power of the Holy Ghost:

One of the First things that I know are true is that God lives. He is my Heavenly Father and he loves me. He sent his Son Jesus Christ to be my Savior. Thr Scriptural accounts of Christ and his teaching and Sacrifice are real and True. He suffered and Died for me.

I know that God answers prayers. He communicates with us in many ways, but espescially through the Holy Ghost.

After Study and Prayer I came to have a strong Testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, and that this is the True Church. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that Thomas S. monson is a prophet today. I know that Jesus Christ's Gospel has been restored, and that it is real and true. It works. We can change and be forgiven and healed.

I know that as we follow Jesus Christ we will have lasting peace and Joy. I know that God keeps his word. I know that God knows me personally. I know that the plan of Salvation is real. I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

The work is good. 

We'll baptize this week, and that's good.

Love,

Elder Keeley

Elder Millburn picture of

He got his Eyebrows threaded today.
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Picture6/12/17

This is part of the zone​

Forever Hmong

Or Maybe not. We are getting a set of Hmong Missionaries, so I will not be covering the Hmong branch henceforth. I left it better than I found it so it's all good.

This week Elder Gray left to Fresno on Monday to be an assistant. I joined up with Elder Chadwin Wright and Elder Woodmansee for the week. It was super fun, and fairly productive.

On Monday we had the Last Zone Meeting ever in the California Fresno Mission. We trained on being bold in inviting others to be baptized, and in finding. We also talked about not falling in despair.

After that I said goodbye to Elder Gray and went to Brother Fife's house for Hmong Family Home evening while Elder Wright and Woodmansee used the truck.

I was picked up the Hamptons and we taught Gracie. She is a super solid recent convert.

On Tuesday we 

On Wednesday I went on a team up with Brother Atkinson. he dropped me off at President Smith's house. Then Brother Smith took me to the church and I went off with Brother Lavato and we taught Sister Cannon and Eva's family.
I set a new personal record for investigators at Sacrament meeting this week with 8. We had Eva and her family, Olga, Keith, and Jim. Kenny and Benny came to the Hmong Branch.

Keith is doing pretty well. He currently is looking for a place to live, and he wants to turn his life around by making things right with God. He has come to church twice in a row, and reads the Book of Mormon every day. he also prays every day and keeps any other commitment that we give him. he has a baptism date for later in June.

Being in a tripanionship is really fun because if we all feel pushed to perform.

Brother Alonzo (Lacey's dad) gave us two fancy ties this week, but since their are three of us we made a ping pong tournament to see who got them. I got a nice red one with second place.

On Friday we left Elder Woodmansee in Merced and Elder Wright and I drove down to Fresno to get the mail. Afterwards we ate Egg rolls with Sister Balls and Sister Troseth, May, Fey and Benny and Kenny at Fey Saelee's house. They are super smart and super cool, but still haven't gotten the green light to be baptized. After all of the egg rolls and banana rolls we went and ate dinner in Atwater with Aiya Le and her family.

On Saturday we went to Planada to try and visit all of the less active members. We were walking outside of an apartment complex when a lady called out to us and asked us if we wanted some water. We got some and she told us we could come back in a minute and get some cake. We did. Later in our Planada trip we went to the outskirts of the city of Legrand and found a lady named Alma and her Husband Christian. Alma actually came to church last week, but she is not a member. We taught them and they gave us some really good spaghetti. Spaghetti is usually not very good as a missionary, but theirs was really good. Alma and Christian lives with her Sister who is a member.

Then we ate Dinner with Chou and his mother that mostly just speaks Hmong. We had a nice leaf (maybe beet leaves?) in water drink, and the chicken that a women that just had a baby has to eat for 30 days. The mom kept telling us to "eat too much" and get "more power." It motivated me to eat more green vegetables and chicken.

With a tripanionship we had a "literal boatload " of great and sometimes crazy experiences.

I worked a lot on planning specifically for each investigator family. There were a few times where it really worked for them.

Stake Correlation was really good. It was the last one with President Clark.

Olga is doing well. She succesfully quit coffee for a week. She set a baptismal date for July 1st. She will be out of town before then.

Love,

Elder Keeley

picture 6/5/17

​Elder Woodmansee and Elder Wright outside of Pangs house. That is a dragon fruit tree. Elder Wright is blowing fire.

Driving everywhere but on the range

We did a lot of driving this week. On Tuesday we went on exchanges with Yosemite. I went biking with Elder Woodmansee. It was pretty fun. We went right over the train track hill at one point.

It was good to bike again, but it was also over 100 degrees.

We got to sleep on the Patio with Elder Wright while the Rowan's were in Utah for a couple of days.

Elder Woodmansee and I taught their investigator Gary. We really focused on feeling the spirit and it was a very spiritual lesson.

On Wednesday we volunteered at the Zoo. Elder Gray and I got hallway trained so we can go behind all of the dangerous animal's cages. They have some black bears and a cougar.

We were able to teach Sister Cannon and her family some more this week. Elder Gray went over there while we were on exchanges and was able to teach all of Skyler's family. They were all planning on coming to church this Sunday, but some of them got the Stomach flu. The Cannon's still came to church.

We were able to teach a temporarily homeless guy named Keith at the church, and he came to church on Sunday. He know's our bishop and a bunch of other members, and will hopefully keep turning his life around.

We had a really good lesson with Olga, and were able to teach Gracie's husband Brett as well this week. They were out of town this week, but it should be good.

Benny and Kenny's father hasn't given them permission to get baptized yet, because he doesn't know how much they now and live the gospel yet. We invited them to teach him by example.

We weren't able to teach Sister White at all for the last while. She was out of town for the weekend.

We had a lot of dinner with different members this week. I had Fu for the first time, and today we had Hmong Egg rolls.

 They were pretty good.

Jim came to church this week as well. He knows Keith, and was good fellowship for him. 

It was a pretty good week this week. I can't think of anything else exciting to talk about, but it was good. 

I studied about 

Love,

Elder Keeley

picture 5/29/17

​Straight out of the mission. Up to Stockton. For Chick-fil-a. Also on Secret Zone leader Business. We didn't break any rules. Maybe we watched BYU play baseball, but maybe not.

Sorry for the Low picture quality. The window was rolled up.

Now Jhong

I had a pretty good week this week. We had Zone Conference on Thursday. It was really good. Elder Perkins and Elder Arebalo are going home soon.They gave their final testimonies.

We ate lunch with my favorite old Hmong lady named Pang. She can speak English, but has only talked in English Once that I've heard. She made us some Hmong food. It was spicy, and pretty good. 

We taught Saint and Stephan, some Hmong recent Converts that are about 11 years old. They are crazy. We were able to control them by having them teach us instead.

We had a lot of good visits with the part member families that we are working with like Lacey and Sister White. Neither of those two came to church, but we had a lot of other Less actives come. The hmong Branch attenance more than doubled from 20 last week to over 50 this week. It was cool. Kenny and BNenny are set for Baptism, and Olga should be ready to go as well.

We also taught the Cannon family, and they came to church with a neighbor kid named Skyler.

 We went on exchanges to Atwater. I went with Elder Wilmoth and went to Livingston. We went into 4 wheel drive mode in our truck. I had to sleep on the couch, and it threw off my back.

We had a really good lesson with Olga at the end of the week. She has had a boatload of spiritual experiences, and had a baptismal date, but wasn't very solid for it. We read Alma 34 with her, and figured out that her biggest Concern is Coffee.

 We read :

Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism.

She recognized that this was talking to her, and recognized some impressions that she had had earlier in the last few weeks. She committed to repent and be baptized. IT was more important than stinking coffee.

We got to feed the Tortoises at the Zoo this week. 

We also had a really neat lesson with an investigator name Alex and her Sister Vickie. We ate some Sopes with them, and then read 1st Nephi 1 and 2. They have both met with missionaries in the past, and were hesitant to be taught again, but agreed to read the Book of Mormon with us.

During the Lesson Alex expressed to us that she doesn't feel bad for her mistakes. We committed her to watch Elder Costas talk, because it talks about that. She texted us after a while and said she's going to read more from the Book of Mormon now.

It was cool.

It has also been neat to see how my Zone has been improving week by week. They had a drastic change in Chowchilla this week with 6 new baptismal dates, and 5 new people at church.

Sin she do-a

Elder Keeley

Gracie's Baptism, Mother's day, Merced's way.

I had a good week this week. We found four new investigators, but the quality of the part member families that we found declined a little bit. We baptized Gracie and had Three investigators and three more non members come to her baptism. Olga, Gracie's mom was there, and she cried the next day at the confirmation. We set a baptismal date with Olga for June. She will be baptized them. Our investigator Deanna came to the baptism, and she is really set on her baptismal date of June 4th. She read up to first Nephi twenty, and read and highlighted the living Christ. She has already made a great transformation in her life. She missed church this week, but both her and her husband Butch are really on fire right now.

Then on the Hmong side, we have Benny and Kenny. They both have been reading the scriptures consistently. Their mom came to church this Sunday and asked us what time their baptism will be on June 3rd. They are solid. They are Miian.

Today we went to Yosemite. We hiked up to a waterfall and then drove down into the valley. It was pretty neat. I think that it was cooler than the Sequoias. It was really nice to go hiking.

This week we went on exchanges with the Assistants. I went with Elder Quinn. We were 3 day companions a long time ago. We worked in the Tower District in Fresno. We set some baptism dates. During the night Elder Quinn got the Stomach flu. We had to take off early the next day to teach the Rae family.

Mothers day and Skyping my family was fun. We kind of do the same routine as missionaries, so we don't have a ton of material to talk about.

I went on exchanges with Elder J Wright this week. We ended up in the less nice areas looking for Less active members.

My teaching this week really had a theme of how faith works in our lives. We are able to experiment with God's word, and then reap the benefits of our faith. But we have to be sincere. The blessings don't always come immediately, so that is where the trial of our faith can come from.

Love,

Elder Keeley

Yosemite

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Gracie's baptism

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Merry Merced

Merced is doing extraordinarily. We had 4 new part member families at church this week. Among the 7 investigators at church, we had 2 from a part member family that attended the Hmong Ward. They were the first new Hmong investigators for over a month. Their names are Kennoth and Bennoth. They are really cool, and we will baptize them soon. Gracie will be baptized this weekend, and we're excited for that. 

This week I went on exchanges with Elder Strommen for the first time in a long time. We had a great time. We went to a restaurant calle Tokyo something, but it was actually a Chinese restaurant. We taught a 95 year old lady.

We have had a lot of success working with Part member families so far this transfer. That is the best way to do missionary work.

We had Stake Correlation meeting with President Clark, the stake presidency, and the High councilor over missionary work. It was a fun meeting to be in. 

I was able to order some name tags in Hmong. 

We had interviews with the Mission President on Tuesday. He will be going home pretty soon. He had me bear my testimony. I also had the opportunity to bear my testimony in the Hmong Branch. I've really been thinking about how a testimony of the Atonement helps us to have the faith to do the small gospel things such as reading, praying and going to church. It helps us repent and become like Christ.

Love,

Elder Keeley

Picture 5/8/17

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Picture of Elder Gray

Also, Elder Wright is in my Zone.

Also the Elder Wright that I served with. Also Elder Wilmoth. 
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The Elvis of the Hmong world went to my Junior High

True story. We ate dinner at his house. Elder Gray ate a Habernaro and it was hilarious. My Hmong name is Keej lee  (pronounced like gangly but with a K in front). Look it up on Googlee. 

On Wednesday we went to the Zoo and an Emu pecked my hand. We were doing service. The Merced zoo is super tiny. It didn't hurt at all to get pecked, but it made me jump. We raked the pens.

One of the fun things about being a zone leader is that we get to have a truck. We had it for a day, but then we had to put it in the shop for some body work. There was a dent before I got here. We borrowed some of the other Elder's Corollas.

5 Am on Sunday we got up and then took off to the Fresno East Stake Center to a combined MLC/ DLC meeting with Elder Brent Nielson, the missionary director. IT was fantastic. He showed us some super cool videos and talked about what they are going to talk about at the New mission presidents seminar. We talked a lot about teaching all the time, and finding. The Provo Utah Mission is the highest baptizing mission in the world because the missionaries teach all of the time.

We also talked about how we can help members share the gospel over social media while we are with them at dinners, etc. We tried it out and it was pretty good. We used videos from Mormon.org.au They are sweet.

I already know basically all of the Elders in my zone, but I only know a couple of the Sister Missionaries. 

We have some super sweet investigators here in Merced. We have a lady named Gracie and her mom Olga that are both set to be baptized a week from Saturday. 

We have another investigator named Jim that goes to church every week. His baptismal date is all the way in July though.

We were able to find another great part member family this week.

One of the coolest things about serving in Merced is that I am related to about half of the ward, and I am actually living at my great great Uncle's home. I am also excited to have some Robisons in the ward. A lot of my companions have served in Merced before me.

The worst part of Merced is that my allergies came back. Hopefully they will go away again soon.

Being a Zone leader is fun. We go all over the place.

On Saturday we went to lake Yosemite and did some service there. We painted the ground. 

Elder Gray is a classic BYU student. He's good.

I left my camerea at our housing, but I'll see if I can get a good picture of Elder Gray.

Elder Keeley

Following Footsteps

Elder Taylor is coming to take my place in Tulare. We had transfer calls this week and I am following the footsteps of Elder Speer, Elder Perkins, Elder Call, and Elder Oliver and going North to Merced. I'll be a Zone Leader there with Elder Gray. It should be a lot of fun. They are completely taking out the Tulare Sisters, so Elder Thornton and Elder Taylor will cover the whole of Tulare. Elder Taylor was trained by Elder Perkins. 

This week I went on Exchanges with Elder Derbidge. It rained down in the Lindsay, but it was a pretty fun exchange. I got to do another Baptismal interview. I had another one on Wednesday as well, and I could have easily had more baptismal interviews, but some people drank coffee.

We had another crazy week as far as work goes. We found 11 new investigators. I'll miss the team up structure that exists in Tulare. It helps things be more productive.

On Friday we went to a wedding for a pair of the Sister missionaries' investigators. It was the first time I've actually seen people get married I think. We got some strawberries from the Zone Leaders, actually from Brother Chandler in Porterville. They were good. 

Elder Frausto is killing it in DC. He has already had some baptisms. 

We randomly had a former investigator named Kennedy come to church on Sunday. 

I have really been focusing on helping my investigators see why the gospel of Jesus Christ is important for them on a personal level. In my studies I have been studying all of the scriptures related to Jesus Christ Atonement Through. It has been neat to learn more about his Atonement.

I really loved being a Zone leader, and I loved all of the opportunities to minister to my district. Now I will be able to minister to district Leaders instead.

This Sunday we are having a combined MLC/DLC meeting with Elder Brent Nielson, the director of missionary work and a 70. I am super excited.

I'll tell you how the Merced is.

I'll miss the old Tulare and all of the dairy stuff over here.

Love,

Elder Keeley

picture April 24th

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Exhange Temple interview and Easter

​​I had a good, and extremely full week this week. On Monday and Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Derbidge, we set five baptismal dates together. We taught our family of four and set a baptismal date with them. The biggest obstacle with them is how busy they are because of Sports. They are receptive, but hard to catch, and it is hard for them to go to church on Sunday. We also set a baptismal date with an investigator named Pablo. Elder Thornton and I contacted him, and then Elder Thornton and Elder Derbidge taught him, and now Elder Derbidge and I taught him. He had read all the way through to 1st Nephi 7, which is actually pretty good.

 On Wednesday we had the Temple trip, which was wonderful, and then an exchange with the Zone leaders in the land down under. Porterville. We went on a home teaching split with the Stake President where we visited his home teaching families with him. In the evening we teamed up with Brotehr Chandler, but only taught one more lesson.

 On Thursday I went on exchanges with Elder Mendez. I worked on Stewardship reports and did a baptismal interview. We're going on another exchange next week.

 On Friday I finished the rest of the stewardship reports. We saw the Assistants and Zone leaders. We had a pretty slow day after that. 

On Saturday we found a golden new investigator named Danielle. We set a baptismal date with her. She just moved in and was looking for a church when we showed up the first time. We found her with Brother Hamilton a while ago. 

We had a boatload of less actives at church on Sunday, and a few less active families. We took a Priest out with us after church so that he could "eat like a missionary." We had a Big Tongan family have a missionary return home. On Easter everyone has a BBQ, and they like to share with the missionaries.

Love,

Elder Keeley

Picture 4/17/17

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Zone Conference, Exchanges and Snails

I had a pretty good week this week. It started off with a good exchange with Elder Maas. I went to Lindsay, and we tore it up. We found a lot of new investigators and potentials. All of Lindsay is on fire.

On Thursday we had Zone Conference in Hanford. I saw Sister Robison from Caruthers. It was a great meeting. We learned more about the importance of working through members, and teaching about the Sabbath day effectively. We talked more about Sacrifice. 

on Friday I went on Exchanges with Elder Matienzo. We had a pretty good time. We focused on finding for most of the day, and we had some decent success as well.

It rained a lot while I was on exchanges with Elder Matienzo, and there were snails everywhere at every house. I don't know where they all came from, but it was crazy. 

We taught some interesting people this week. We taught one man that believes that Christ is coming three main times, and that he has already come the second time, and is the leader of the congregation that he attends. 

Elder Alfredo made it to DC and is already doing some great work.

On Saturday we participated in a stake Just serve project for Billion graves. We went to the Cemetery and took pictures fo different graves there. I had a hula Hoe, and I took care of any weeds and Mole Hills. It was lots of fun. Billion graves is really cool.

We were able to teach Junior this week again. The biggest hold up for his baptism is just finding a day for when everyone in his family can be there. They are a pretty busy family. Something happened recently though, so we should be able to help him be baptized soon. It's been long enough for him. When he prayed last time, all he said was thank you that I can be baptized. 

He is pretty cool.

It was a pretty good week all around, but we're working to get more people to church.

Love,

Elder Keeley

Picture April 10th

Snails

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Finding, DLC, Conference and more.

I had a really busy and spiritually powerful week this week. I also had bad allergies the whole time. I started my week with an exchange with Elder Maas. We were able to find two new investigators and biked around everywhere. We talked to a lot of people. We also teamed up with Nick Hamilton. It was good. Then we swapped Elder Maas out, and Elder Thornton and I teamed up with Matt Cox. We decided to set a goal to find 3 new investigators during the evening. We found 2 and a half, and a bunch of potential investigators. an 11 year old came in at the end of a lesson, but we didn't count him yet. 

On Wednesday I went to DLC with Elder Sullivan. It was a really good one. We learned about Tad R Callister's consecration devotional principles. It was powerful. 

We came back to Tulare and ate dinner, then biked over to MCM. Elder Thornton went on a split for MCM like usual. Tim and I then went to Lindsay and interviewed Gabriel, one of the Lindsay's investigators. He got baptized on Saturday after priesthood session. MY whole Wednesday was a meeting.

On Thursday we did some more biking. WE found a cool investigator named Justin. It was super windy all day long. We actually teamed up with Mike for a while. We went on a split with Brother Hepworth for an hour. On Friday we kept biking. We taught Henry. He had a non member Brother move in with him just barely.

I had an interesting epiphany today as I was taking a power nap while listening to the missionary broadcast DVD that we had. Elder Bednar talks about the scripture that says the power of godliness is manifest in ordinances. Without the ordinances it is not manifest. He was pushing towards inviting everyone to be baptized, but it really applies to church as well. Church is generally the first place where investigators are able to witness an ordinance performed by proper priesthood authority. It is the first place where Godliness is manifest unto them. For the investigators to know if this is the True Church of Jesus Christ, they must go to the church, and witness the Sacrament. I will seek to apply this teaching.

We didn't watch any conference on Saturday besides Priesthood session. We spent the time finding  and trying to teach. We only had one investigator watch conference this time. 

On Sunday We watched Conference and found a big family to teach as well. I really loved this conference. I liked all of the talks. My favorite ones were President Eyring's talk in Priesthood session, and the L. Whitney Clayton's talk, and Elder Rasband's talk, and President Monson's charity talk.

We ended up with 12 new investigators for the week. That's the most I've had so far.

Love,

Elder Keeley

4/3/17 picture

I caught a lizard.

Thunderstorms

We had a pretty good week. We taught a lot of lessons, and did a lot of work, but unfortunately we didn't have any investigators at church this Sunday. 

We had President Interviews in Lindsay. It was probably my favorite interview so far. I am a lot more comfortable getting interviewed now. It should help me later during job interviews.

Here is a good story. We got back to our apartment at about 9:12 because we had gotten out of an appointment and didn't want to risk using any more miles, so we started to walk around our neighborhood. We walked down the street and didn't see anyone, then we walked back and saw a Mexican cowboy. I called out to him and he walked up to us. He was sopping drunk and said he was locked out. He told us that he was homeless and that he just wanted his blanket. We walked down the street a little with him and he told us that he drunk a little bit sometimes. He was pretty wasted. A policeman came down the street with a spotlight. He saw us talking to the guy, but drove down to the house where we found him. We walked the homeless guy over there, and handed him over to the police. It was kind of funny, but also kind of sad.

The weather was crazy this week. We biked in the afternoon, and it was nice and cool outside. Then we drove in the evening and there were thunderstorms and rain. We were driving with a ward missionary and the weather was so crazy that we had to pull over for a minute. The whole sky turned orange. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture.

I have been studying all of the references to Jesus Christ in the Topical guide. I am up to Jesus Christ appearances Ante-mortal. As I have studied Christ I have grown in my understanding of him, and of how the doctrine that we have is tied together. It has been a good experience so far, and one that I highly recommend. It is interesting how the different Books of scripture highlight different aspects of who Christ is.

Love,

Elder Keeley

All Cotton Picking afternoon

We had a lot of work hours this week. The other Elders in the ward moved down to Porterville, and because of that we have been able to go on splits almost every day of the week. We took over the old Elder's apartment. it isn't as nice as our old one, but the location is a little bit more central. We are right next to Elder Matienzo and Elder Mendez. 

My whole district is actually doing incredibly well right now. Everyone is finding and teaching a ton. Investigators are coming to church and the work is hastening.

We had a special opps missionary with us for the weekend, and it turned out to be Elder Bradshaw. He is the same person that went out with Elder Smith and I a year ago in Selma. What are the odds of that? We had a lot of fun with him. I'd be driving, see someone and pull up next to them, and roll Elder Bradshaw's Window down so that he could contact them. Everyone he talked to was out of the World nice. "Are you the Mormon's? I love the Mormons!" " I love Jesus, you can come back anytime!" 

One of my favorite investigators right now is named Oz. I might have talked about him before. I taught him with a priest on splits yesterday. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. We really focused on the Atonement, repentance and baptism. We had him read the paragraph on acknowledge the Savior and he said, "This is me, this is what I want. I want to repent." Oz has been a great example of someone that has made dramatic changes as we have read the Book of Mormon. The way that he looks has changes, the way that he talks has changes, he does more work around the house, and cleaning. Almost everything is better. As we talked about the Holy Ghost, he said those feelings are things that I feel a lot. I don't always act on them, but I am trying. He brought up his baptism date, and we helped him set a new one. He had a rough past full of drugs and other hardships. 

Here is my new companion Elder Thornton. He is 6'5". 

We spent a lot of time cleaning and reorganizing our new apartment. It became way better. We got a new shower head and everything.

Here is Elder Thornton.

We also went biking this week. It is very hot over here already. It brought back memories of the Selma. I am able to talk to the missionaries in Selma sometimes because they work with some of the Sisters in my district.​

Love,

Elder Keeley

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3/20/17 picture

​Big Ben

This is a massive chair throne. We were teaching Manny on Splits. Drink 7 up! 

-This message was brought to you by 7 up

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We went to the Sequoias last Monday. Also Transfers

Last week we went to the Sequoias. We didn't get back till about 5, so I didn't have time to email.

We went with Brad and Bri. We drove all the way to the General Sherman. Good old William Tecumsah is one of my favorite Cival war generals. I also like his name. The General Sherman Tree is the Biggest one in the World. It was cool. We also got some ice cream in 3 Rivers. It was a lot of fun, but the drive took forever.

We have had a really good last two weeks. We found 8 new investigators this week. We'll see how good they are later. Elder Wright and I had found more than 177 groups of potential investigators this transfer. I ran out of space, and filled up some sticky notes.

We went on a team up with Brother Foxley yesterday. We went to visit a potential investigator named Salene, but she was gone. Instead we taught a LA member named John and a new investigator named Shannon. John has the nickname of Happy, and he is homeless. I've ran into him a few times. Brother Foxley used to be his home teacher. We taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and John left the lesson at the end Crying. It was neat. Brother Foxley teaches our gospel Principles class, and it is really good. He is a high councilman.

I have been blessed to notice the powerful change that comes to investigators as we take time to read from the Book of Mormon with our investigators. As we read with investigators, they invite themselves to church, and want to experience the change that comes through the gospel. I love the Book of Mormon. We can see this especially with an Investigator named Oz. With him we basically just read with the Book of Mormon. We also saw it with Jonathan this week.

We had Emily and Alavaeh, Brad and Bri, and Megan come to church this Sunday. President Clark was there and got to meet them all. They all loved it and had a good experience.

All of the investigators that we had at church on Sunday are very prepared, and will all be baptized soon. As we taught the Doctrine of Christ from third Nephi 11 with our investigator Emily and her granddaughter Alavaeh we had Alavaeh stop us every time we read the word baptism, repentance, and Holy Ghost. As we read the chapter, Emily told us quietly, " That's what I want." It was powerful.

We are close to baptizing Junior. It has taken longer than it should have.

We had a lot of cool stories this week. Here is a taste.

We were trying to visit a potential investigator named Ethel. She wasn't home so went to her neighbors house because an older Black man and his daughter were outside. It is already really hot over here in Tulare, so I walked in and asked the man for some water. He looked at us and said, "This is the craziest thing all day, and it's been a crazy day! I wonder What God is trying to tell me. I have never had two White men walk in my yard and ask me for water before. He got us some water. He told us that we could come back another day and share our message with him. 

As far as Transfer go, I am staying in Tulare again. Elder Wright is leaving to go to Visalia. The Zone leaders moved from Tulare to Porterville, and we are getting a new set of Sister Missionaries in Tulare.

The plan is that we will go Home teaching with the Elders and High Priests, and Priests, and the Sisters will go visiting teaching with the Relief Society. It should be very good.

We get to team up with Tim finally.

Love,

Elder Keeley

3/13/17 Pic from Last week when we didn't email.

That's Brad and Bri, Elder Wright and me. I blinked again.
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Solid Week

​​I had a good week all around. We had Zone conference on Tuesday. The Assistants had a good training, and President Clark gave a good training on capacity and growth. He had a small jar that he filled up with stones. Then he got a bigger jar and poured the smaller jar into it. it filled up about halfway. Then he filled it the rest of the way and refilled the small jar too. Then he pulled out a bigger jar. He ended with a huge jar. He talked about we work towards our current capacity, and as we work towards it our capacity grows so there is more of us to fill. I liked it.

On Sunday Bishop Spencer, who is a great Bishop, gave a talk about having a growth mindset. It was a really good talk as well.

We found a lot of new investigators, and we actually found quite a few through the members.

With the new ward we have been able to go on a lot of splits and team ups. It's been a lot of fun. We team up with a used to be recent convert named Mike. 

 I went on exchanges with Elder Mendez. It was pretty uneventful. 

On Saturday Elder Wright and I went to Lindsay during the afternoon to help the Elders over there find. We talked to a lot of people and found a lot of potentials. It was a lot of fun. 

We had Brad and Bri go to church on Sunday. They are working towards getting married. They might take us to the Sequoias next week. We also had a new investigator named Kim come. She has investigated the church on her own for a long time. She has a lot of questions.

The Martinez family came. Brother Shamann came for the first time since I've been here.

We received one media referral this week that turned into two new investigators. A Byu Lacrosse student talked to a lady at a gas station on a prompting and had a gospel discussion. We were able  teach Emily and her Husband, and her two grandchildren that are young.

We also had Sister Luna go to the talent show on Wednesday.

Everything has been going really well. We have a lot of people working towards baptismal dates.

Love,

Elder Keeley