Baptism of Jim, Alex and Cecilia

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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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