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