Goodbye Elder Jarman... {February 4, 2013}

Redhill Town Center 

Hiya!!

So this week was SWEET!! We just started a new transfer, I said goodbye to my German companion and the German was replaced with the Elder Michael Jarman! My boy from B-Town! We hung out quite a bit back at home; we went to Jr. High and high school with each other and chilled quite a bit with lots of other friends. It’s really weird to be honest... we talk a whole lot about home... haha so I think we both are a bit trunky sometimes.. Not bad enough to not work, not even close, but things are just coming back to our minds about worldly things... but we are for sure workin hard!

So we started working with each other on Wednesday evening, and BAM! The first B-Town Comps pulled a miracle! We were knocking around 6:30 pm and the second door we knocked was an Indian family. They noticed that we were awesome cause were from bountiful, so they of course invited us in. we were expecting them to be Muslim like all the rest of the Indians around London... but they were fortunately Christian!! It was sweet! We taught them about families and also the restoration. Our first teach together was pretty good! We committed the family to read and pray for themselves about the Book of Mormon and the restoration to know the truthfulness of what we taught, they were pretty receptive and accepted the invitation!

After that evening we have found LOADS of new people to teach! It’s so crazy! It’s like God just flipped a switch and we are finding all of these people that are humble and willing to listen! It’s so great! Elder Jarman is an awesome missionary, I learn so much from him. We get along so well, and we actually laugh a lot! Which really makes me feel good.

Throughout the rest of the week we just have been finding miracles right and left, we found 4 solid potentials and 1 new investigator in a 10 flat building. It was insane! The investigator we found in that building was a total miracle; it was probably the first legitimate miracle I’ve seen on my mission. Long story short, (I’ve got no time)

We knocked on Flat #5, we heard a voice say "NOT INTERESTED, go away". so we started walking away slowly... we heard the door of #5 open, and it was this lady that I just might say that she really needed the Gospel in her life. We turned around and just introduced ourselves. She all of the sudden said "would you like to come in?"... I was like what?

So we went in and got to know her, her flat was a disaster... she had a crazy dog that was all over me and would not leave me alone! But somehow we taught her a few principles that were relevant to her. OH her name is Christine. We found out that she was an alcoholic... not only because she told us... but it was obvious that she was... and we taught her about the Atonement, the spirit was very strong, and she wanted to learn more. We gave her a Book of Mormon, and she felt so bad for taking it without paying us... haha but the lesson was awesome, a bit scattered, but it still was good. Right after we said the closing prayer, Christine started talking to me and telling ME how great I am and how she wished her son was like ME... and so on so forth... it was a little awkward cause she was complementing me and not Elder Jarman... i felt really bad... i just kept saying "thank you Christine.. Thank you.." and she just continued with her complements, so I just said "Well I admire Elder Jarman as well because he’s doing the exact same things as me and so on.." haha then Christine was like "wait, how old are you elder Jarman, he said "20".. Then Christine face went blank, and she was very apologetic because she tough Jarman as 34 years old... hahaha! That’s why she was giving him complements... it was really funny... christine new i was 20 some how... but after her recognition she went on telling how wonderful elder Jarman was as well. So it was a funny experience, I give elder Jarman a hard time about looking 34 years old. Haha oh good fun.

Anyways the week was wonderful; I can’t wait for this week! To see more miracles!!

Margret our baptismal date, is set for the 23rd for this month!!!! But she did not come to church yesterday... which is a little problem... we will see her tomorrow morning to see what is up!!!

I LOVE AND MISS ALL OF YOU SO MUCH!!

I’m learning a whole lot! I have many weaknesses, but weird to say that I am grateful that I have weaknesses, because it keeps me Humble. So true. I know if I knew a whole lot of Doctrine to prove people wrong on their beliefs then I would prove them wrong... so i must change that... and be humble so I can receive more knowledge;)

Cheers everyone!!

January 28, 2013

Hello Family!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! 

This week went by so fast, but also really slow if I really think about it... We started off the week by teaching a lady named Margret, I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned her before or not, but she is a wonderful black lady from you guessed it Nigeria. We taught her last Tuesday the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it went really well! we read more scriptures then we usually do in a normal lesson, and the Word of God really spoke to Margret in her heart, we read in 2 Nephi 32 and Margret was bawling because she Knew this was true, she said no one has ever taught her about the holy ghost before, she realized the importance of the Holy ghost and really felt it. after crying for 10 minutes, we all were silent for a small moment, and she was drying up her tears, and she looked at us and said " well... are you going to ask me if I want to be baptized?" haha we were like YEAH of course! Haha we did it in a proper way, and she said "yes" BUT... she needs to pray for a specific date she said..... So we are still waiting for her to tell us when she wants to be baptized. We will commit her tomorrow for her. Cause we have been praying hard for a good date for Margret. Towards the end of the lesson, Margret wanted to learn more about the temple! We taught her the main bits of the temple in a very short simple way, and we invited her to come to the temple in the next couple days. (we live just 25 minutes from the London Temple) she was so excited and accepted right away and said  "yes, whenever we can go I will go, nothing will get in the way of this experience". So we did go to the temple last Thursday and it was fantastic! The visiting center sisters took control of teaching Margret about the temple and it was so perfect! At the visitor’s center they have a lot of technology, so that people can look up different temples around the world, and watch many video clips about the temple, the spirit was so strong that day. OH when we picked up Margret she came out dressed all in White! It was so fun! We sort of I guess didn’t make it clear to her that she needed a temple recommend to go inside of the temple, she didn’t mind at all. She learned that we wear all white in the temple from church last week. haha so she was prepared and excited to go!

Challenges this week.... as you see I sent you two odd pictures....  1. jw'bs.........  2. The Book of Mormon Musical.......

1. We just found out that the Jehovah witnesses are now the fastest growing church in the world at the moment... I’m so mad...

2. the Book Of Mormon musical is now being performed in London... so people have lots of questions which are good and also can be bad...  there are buses driving all around the place saying "the Mormons are coming" haha its pretty cool being a missionary at this time!! I love to REPRESENT THE LORDS CHURCH BABY!! So basically our whole mission is getting together and we are being trained on how to handle jw'bs!! Haha and also handle anti stuff, with the Musical in town... so it’s going to be exciting! It feels like a war! I’m so pumped! I just wish my knowledge of the scriptures were super solid so I could call everyone to repentance!

Anyways, moves are this Wednesday. So I’m pretty sure that I will stay in Red hill. I had an interview with President Millar last Wednesday, and he basically told me and most of the mission that we are all training. We are expecting 60 new missionaries coming in the mission in the next 2 moves. So everyone will be training whether they like it or not. Haha a whole bunch of 18 year olds are coming in... Great... I'm excited though. (It will be in 6 weeks’ time when loads of missionaries will be coming in).

Oh cool fact; there have been many missionaries who have been getting in fights and get really beaten up! Haha I’m so excited to be involved in a fight... haha contention is of the devil... i know... but when it comes down to defending the Lords church and I I'm ready! :) don’t worry!

I just finished reading the Book of Mormon last night, and wow I love it so much. I read it so slowly and diligently for the last 3 months. I re-read chapters if I didn’t understand the teachings, and took lots of notes, and it was all well worth it. I learned so much, now I have a pretty good understanding of the Book of Mormon. I am super blessed.

I love and miss you so much everyone. I hope everything is going well for all of you.

Cheers mates!! ;)

January 21, 2013

Hello my fellow friends and family!

This week I must say was freezing! It snowed for 3 days...... it definitely was NOT Utah snow, but it was a lot of snow for England. People here were freaking out because it snowed so much, it was pretty funny. There was nobody on the streets; people wouldn't even talk to us at their door because it was "Too Cold". Haha the Grocery shops were selling out of food because people thought they would be stuck in their houses because of the snow. People exaggerate so much over here about snow... haha I’ve had a lot of laughs. Church was of course canceled because there was an inch of snow on the ground and the streets were just wet. So it was really confusing to me......  but we got by safely and tried to stay warm. I had to wear 5 layers of clothes I was so cold and two pairs of bball socks. The cold would just go right through all of what I was wearing. It was good fun though.

With all of this bad cold weather, it equals bad results for missionary work... that’s pretty much what happened this week. A lot of our potential investigators bailed on us.... a couple of our "solid" investigators dropped us. It was a tough week for us. Carla who I was so excited for dropped us, I really struggled with that, because I was so confident that she was going to be baptized. But Satan really got to her and she doesn't want to go any further...... I was so sad. We actually saw her in the streets while trying to contact people, and she just walked right by us not saying anything... I actually didn’t know that was her because her lower face was covered with jacket and hoodie... i felt so dumb that I wasn’t more talkative to her. I would have if I knew for sure it was her. We found out later it was her because us texted her and yeah... it didn’t go very well....

The good part of this week was that I received the "Living Scriptures" that Mom sent me! They are so awesome! They are just for little kids to know the scripture stories throughout the bible and Book of Mormon, they are so awesome! We are going do a lot of family nights with those things! Because they have games on the main menu so you can learn more about the stories and know what the purpose is. I learn a lot from those DVD’ s its nice going to the basics again. Elder Fingerle and I have our own little episode night thing... you guys back at home watch episodes of the Office, Modern family, Family Guy etc... Well we have our missionary episodes which are the Living scriptures, so we watch on DVD before we got to bed, and have hot chocolate. Its good fun! Haha

Missionary work right now is a bit slow... we don't have many people progressing; we need to find a lot more people. Our finding efforts are a lot better than they used to. I need to ask inspired questions and be more REAL with the people and show them that I do love them and care for their salvation. there is a lot of discouragement every now and then, but after being rejected maybe 100 times we will find 1 person who is receptive and wants to learn more, and when you experience that, you know it’s so worth being rejected 100 times for just that 1 person who is ready for the Gospel.

I hope everyone is doing Fantastic! I sure love and miss all of you!

Cheers my fellow mates ;)

Love Elder Keller!

"Oh, and.... we got new mission cars. They are pretty sweet huh?!?! And fast..." 

It SNOWED! {January 14, 2013}

Hello!

This will be short... This week was really had its ups and downs. We found a lot of potentials last week that we thought would turn into New Investigators, but we thought wrong. It was said, we thought we would have had at least another 4 new investigators... but they either were not interested, or they were afraid that they would be killed by their family because they are Muslim, or they just became stubborn.. It was sad to see. But there’s much more work to look forward to and Miracles to pray for and find.

I don’t know if I already told you this story, but very long story short, we met this Filipino family and they were Mormon years ago... and the grandfather of the family, said the Christ texted him and called him to be a prophet... it was bad... we taught this family, and they all were so abominable... they wore their own garments.. They did baptisms for the dead, they believe in the book of Mormon, but think Joseph Smith just translated the BOM for their family... and they continue receiving revelation from Christ texting them... it’s really bad... and the grandfather called his grandsons to be apostles... it was a very bad teach, we really wanted to rebuke them in the name of Christ. So that was just a really random pointless story I wanted to share... ha

 Yesterday Carla and her daughter came to church!! It was so awesome!! They really loved it, the members were great! And we will see Carla this week and give her a date to be baptized! So we are praying and working so hard that things will turn out well!

 The work is going great; I’m trying to overcome all my many weaknesses... And I've learned that patience is required.....

I love and miss all of you so much! I'm really sorry if I haven't responded to some of your emails... I never have enough time to email people back. But I will respond eventually.

Cheers.

Ps: it snowed today. And people were expecting a huge snow storm so they prepared for it and bought a lot of groceries in case they would be "snowed in" and this picture shows how much snow we got drilled with...

Miracles {January 7, 2013}

Hello everyone,

This will be short and sweet, I need to go play basketball, because it’s been a while since I've ran... I'm so fat...

Anyways, this week has been great, the Holidays are really really over, and we are back on track focusing on the work. The holidays were a real distraction for us... but we have set new goals and we have our new year’s resolution. And I have a lot of them.

We have been working really hard these last couple of weeks and I've been trying so hard to BE EXACTLY OBEDIENT, like mom tells me every email. The last couple of weeks I've been trying to do this, and they say if you’re obedient you'll have success, and if you’re exactly obedient you'll have Miracles. And this week I've seen miracles, the Lord has been blessing us so much. Especially this week. We have contacted our butts off and knocked a ton of doors, and we have found so many people to teach, when I say so many I mean 4. Which is a lot? We haven't found any new investigators in the last 5 weeks... which is pretty sad. But we have found some pretty solid people. One of them is named Carla; she is South African and has a young 6 year old daughter. She is pretty, but is ready for the Gospel! We found her on the street and she needs God in her life might I just say. We taught her the plan of salvation first, and we answered a lot of her questions. She is super nice, we will be teaching her on Friday and she will be coming to church as well as her daughter! So cool! We also had another miracle, before I got to Redhill; the missionaries have been teaching this Filipino guy for 5 months and was not progressing. I've taught him a few times and he still wouldn't progress... we decided we were going to drop him, but would visit him one more time. So we did, and I decided to be really bold for the first time on my mission and guess what? He wants to be baptized! So I learned by being bold but not over bearing you can get people to commit. The guy’s name in Santos, he is 66 years old. He came to church yesterday for the first time! And he loved it! I'm so excited! He doesn't have a date to be baptized yet... because he wants to choose the date... but it will be either this month or the beginning of February!

Another quick story about Santos... so we arranged a lift for Santos to come to church, he can’t drive. So we had some close by members pick him up, and before they did they called me and said they lost their car keys....... of course... Satan is real... the members felt so bad, but they obviously were still trying to find them. After we hung up the phone, I said a prayer that they would find the keys, (keep in mind this is Santos first time he said he would come to church), and 10 minutes later I got a call from brother smith and he said he found them! He walked his dog that morning and I guess the keys slipped out of his pocket, brother smith was walking the streets by a golf course trying to find them. He felt prompted to ask some golfers if they had his keys and they did! So wow! Miracles happen! The prayer was answered! Brother Smith shared that story in fast and testimony meeting! It was really good! He mentioned Santos in his testimony and I could see that it meant something to him to Santos! There were many more miracles I could share, but I need to go.

I love and miss all of you so much!

Thank you for all of your support, love and prayers!

Cheers!

Happy New Year, bring on 2013!! {January 2, 2013}

Hello everyone!

Sorry I didn't email on Monday... it was New Years and everything was closed for the last few days... but first things first! We got another baptism! Little Erin was baptized on Sunday by a member in the ward! It was so great! She is a granddaughter of a less active... but i still count her as a baptism of mine because i taught her! The baptism went really well, Erin had a lot of her family come who aren't members or they are Less active... but they still came and I’m sure they felt the spirit as they watched there little niece or cousin enter a covenant with the Lord. It was a great moment. It’s only my second baptism since I’ve been out... but I am getting the hang of things so we can get more baptisms!

This last week was wonderful, celebrating out saviors birth, I can truly say for the first time I’ve really felt the true meaning of Christmas and what’s it’s all about. I have never been so focused on Jesus Christ on Christmas sad to say... but I'm a representative of him and and i know how incredibly blessed we are to have Christ in our lives and know what hes all about. I had a wonderful Christmas! Best part of the day was of course skyping with the family! It was so nice to see them!  It was so weird for me... i felt like i was in a dream... I didnt know what to say... i was speechless... and family I'm sorry if i was really boring to talk to... i just wanted to listen to you guys. After we skyped I really did feel bad because I was talking about the stupidest things... i felt like i was really weird and awkward to talk to... I'm sorry fam... Next time I’ll be even weirder.

Alright well I need to go! We need to go teach some less actives, before I emailed we picked up a new BLACK investigator and her little family and it was great! We also met a young mother and her daughter on the street and we got her digits and we will be teaching her on Saturday! So I’m super pumped! Christmas is over, the New Year has begun and now it’s time to refocus and get to work! 2013 here I come! Bout to get some people dunked!

Cheers everybody!

I love you more than anything! ;)

December 17, 2012

Hello everyone!

I Hope you all are ready for Christmas! I know I am! I just received my Christmas tree through the mail! Thank you so much Emily and the rest of the family for putting that together for me! It made me so happy to hang that thing on the wall! My family is so beautiful :) as I was looking through those pictures I noticed how skinny I was back at home... wow... ive gained so much weight... a good 30 pounds worth...  but at least it helps keep me warm.

It is so cold here in England, the cold here is very different then the cold in Utah. It gets to your bones here, it really does. So street contacting isn’t very effective because people are running to get inside cause it’s freezing. So our finding efforts haven’t been that great, which is sad... we really need to find new people to teach. Its Christmas time and people are just all over the place trying to get things done. And we are trying to help them receive the greatest gift of all which is the Gospel. I just wish they would listen.

We were able to go to the temple really quick to say hi to new and other missionaries, and to purchase some studying stuff... there was a little but of snow on the gowned, so the picture i took of the temple is gorgeous! Hope you enjoy my photography ;). We had a ward Christmas party, and we were all supposed to bring food from out countries, we have tons of people that have so many different nationalities. So I proudly brought my American food, Reese’s peanut butter cups and kit Kats and skittles! ;) That’s all I could find! And they loved it, because it was all gone.

Anyways family, I love and miss you so much! It’s going to be weird not being with you this Christmas, but it’s something I’m willing to sacrifice to the Lord. I love you so much guys! Have a happy Christmas!

Cheers! 

December 10, 2012 {first baptism!}

Oie FAMILY!!

I would like to start this email off saying.... FINALLY!!!! I am super blessed! I had the absolute wonderful experience ever on Saturday the 8th of December 2012! I was able to perform a Restored Ordinance! I baptized Susan Jane Lee! Yep Lee! As in Whitney Lee KELLER nelson....:) it was great! I was super nervous! So nervous I had to dunk her 3 times because I messed up on the prayer once, and her hand didn’t go completely under water... I was oh so embarrassed.. But it is okay! It is done! And Susan was confirmed yesterday by my companion, and Susan is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints! How wonder it was! I baptized someone for the first time in my life, her last name is Lee, I baptized in the same font Elder Holland did when he served in my area, and spoke at the same podium he did! So cool! Susan is as happy as can be! And Elder Fingerle and I are as well! Now we need to find more people!

We do have another baptism on the 30th his month! A little girl named Erin, I think I already told you guys about her, but she is so ready to be baptized and she’s so excited! This week I have been really sick... I have a very nasty cold, cough, sore throat and headache, I've sat out for 3 days trying to get my strength back. It was nasty... i filled up a whole rubbish bin full of used tissues... haha I'll have to take a picture... but I am starting to feel a lot better and my enthusiasm is up again now that I finally witnessed a baptism and also was a part of it!

So that was the main bit of my week... i am very excited for Christmas! I will be skipping you guys on Christmas day. You’ll probably get an unexpected call from me, so if you see a huge random number calling you, that would be ME! So answer it this time!!

 I sure miss and love all of you so much! It’s going to be weird not being with you all for Christmas, but I know this is where I need to be for the 2 years serving our Lord and Savior. I learn so much every day, I’m still not that great at teaching, but I’m noticing all the little steps I’m taking to become a better teacher. So if you could keep that in your prayers for me, I’d be so grateful. I need to be a better teacher!

I love you all so much! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!!

Cheers everybody!!

It's a small world after all... {thanksgiving 2012}

It really is a small world...As Steph & Colby & their two little boys were heading back to Texas from their visit home to Utah, they ran into a couple missionary at the airport & this was their experience...

“So... As we were going through security, we saw this cute missionary couple going through as well. We happened to get right behind them, so of course I had to wish them luck and ask them where they were going... London South Mission!!!!! They are from SLC and on their way to their 2nd mission! How awesome is that? So of course, I grabbed Keller's markers and ripped a page out of his coloring book to write him a quick note! They were so sweet and so excited we made a little connection! They said they would probably see him this week. And she told me to tell mom not to worry, she will make sure Jaxon is fed well! I told her she actually isn't too worried about that! Ha ha”

So fun and such a small world!

And here is Jaxon’s experience…

“Hello Everyone!

I'm sorry I didn't email yesterday, I was pretty busy. We had a Thanksgiving p-day with our zone and we were busy setting things up and cooking and things.. so I sort of didn't have time to email.

Yesterday we did have our Thanksgiving feast, there was only 4 Americans out of 18 people. So we had pizza, lots of pizza for Thanksgiving. I was disappointed, I wanted turkey and potatoes, ha ha but it was okay. I guess the Europeans didn't know what Thanksgiving was, but it was fun and really cheap. We played American games, and basketball.

On Sunday it was stake conference...I was greeting people in the church, and all of the sudden I saw two familiar faces, it was Elder and Sister Anderson! The Mission couple that saw Steph and Colby at the Las Vegas airport one week ago (and sent a picture to me)! It was so funny! I recognized them right away and started talking to them like they already knew me. They were a little confused at first, but I quickly explained to them that they saw Steph and so on...they were so excited to talk to me, we laughed and talked for a while. They went on telling me how cute of a family my sister has and how she's such a cute mother. It was great! They gave me a little letter that Steph quickly wrote for me in lime green, and in crayon. It was awesome! Then we obviously took some pictures and there they are! Cool little story!

So the mission is going well! It is FREEZING COLD!! But we are having pretty good success, could use a bit more. I learn so much each day, and I'm growing so much in so many ways! the church is true!

I love all of you and hope everything is wonderful, cause you deserve the best!

Cheers! ;)

PS. I'll write you guys later on... no time. Gotta go check my eyes!”