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