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