The Last Email of my 2 Year Mission {March 10, 2014} MIRACLES

Dear family and friends,

 

Wow, I cannot believe how fast time has gone. This will be my last email to you all while being a missionary. how crazy is that. Next Monday I will be at the temple doing some work for those who are dead and having a dinner with President Millar, interviews and much more. I will be going up to the temple on Sunday night, or Monday morning, and there we will be saying our last goodbyes to the MTC group and sharing spiritual experiences with each other. I hope I can gather my thoughts and simplify and summarize some life long lessons I have learned while being here. It will be hard to explain, kinda like explaining what salt tastes like ;) ha ha thanks to dad I have been using that example all throughout my mission to help people realize that it is hard to describe the spirit, but in order for them to expedience it, they need to act and exercise faith in order to feel the foretaste of eternal joy.

 

I want this to be short and sweet, because I don't want to come across as "preachy," but I just want to let you know that I love every single one of you and couldn't thank you enough for helping me all along the way throughout my entire mission. You have all been there for me whenever I needed you. You all have been an answer to my many heart felt pleading prayers to God when I have been down at times. I will never forget what you have done for me.

 

My 2 years is up and I can't believe it, these last few months I think has been the best months of my life, I have learned so much from the people and members and the Lord while being here. It really has been a test for me and I have prayed really hard throughout the days for help to keep me focused and finish strong, and also not give into temptation pondering to myself going home in 10 days...It could be easy, but the Lord is keeping me busy which is such a blessing.

One of those blessings that I will never forget is that Colin Sean Peters was baptized this weekend!! It was so amazing! What an experience for me who hasn't baptized as much as I thought I would, to end with a solid guy who will build the kingdom here in England. It was an absolute miracle and tender mercy from Heaven to me and all of us. It meant the world to me you guys, just seeing the hand of the Lord always in his work if you allow it to be His way rather than our own way. I felt like I just sat there and watched the progression of Sean and Anthony and Melanie come about. Though I am very tired, don't get me wrong, but I have literally seen and realized that none of this came about because of me or my companion, all we did was to try our best to do what we were told, and the Lord did the rest. It's a great experience. I hope my life will continue the way it is now and to not ever let off the throttle of the faith that I have now in Jesus Christ. I hope one day I will have an even stronger testimony that I have now, which I know will happen! Amazingly!! ;) And you guys will help me as well!

Right there is Evidence of Gods love for me!

 

I love you all with all my heart! And I am looking forward to embracing you!

 

Cheers from England for the last time my friends. ;)

Elder Keller 

{March 3, 2014}

Hello My beautiful wonderful family and friends!!

 

How are you all doing?! The emails you send me are wonderful! Thank you so much for supporting me all the way! Don't give up yet, I still have a couple more times to email.

 

This week has been amazing and also trying! Last Monday as I was emailing, I received a text from Sean who is working towards baptism, but was struggling to gain a witness of the truth. He has been doing everything right it seemed like, he has kept all the commitments we gave him, he was coming to church every Sunday, he would come to church activities every time they were going on. So he is very solid. So I got a text from him, and he said "I feel like I know what is holding me back from getting an answer, and I'm kinda ashamed of it. Can I see you guys tonight for a lesson?" We said sure! I didn't know if this was a wonderful thing or something he was worried about...I was hoping for a wonderful thing because changes were happening! So we taught him at the chapel and his worry was that he felt like he was blaming the church for not being able to skydive on Sundays. It was really annoying him because he is so involved in skydiving. (He is a pro skydiver for great Britain). So it was a sacrifice for him. I shared my testimony about the sabbath, and we shared some scriptures with him. Last week he had an experience as he watched a movie that I gave him about President Monson, in his words he said "As I was watching this film I was crying most of the time and I don't even know why because I'm not an emotional person at all and I was happy at the same time "HA HA! I was like YES. He told me that on the phone last week and I said "Mate, this is your answer, don't you think?" And he said, "I think its part of it." I was like WHAT?!! What greater witness do you want than from God. Ha ha I already knew he had an answer so when we met up with him last Monday he explained that after he watched that film he was so happy and had a text all written out to send to us to say he want to be baptized on the 8th!!! And of course opposition came in...he had a contentious feeling about the sabbath again and he was annoyed, so he didn't send that text that evening. I was freaking out inside. Ha ha, but luckily the spirit calmed me down and prompted me to share a scripture for that situation. I don't know how I remember the scripture but it seemed appropriate for this experience and future experiences. Alma 34:37-41

 

37 And now, my beloved brethren, I desire that ye should remember these things, and that ye should work out your salvation with fear before God, and that ye should no more deny the coming of Christ;

 38 That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, but that ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ; that ye humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.

 39 Yea, and I also exhort you, my brethren, that ye be watchful unto prayer continually, that ye may not be led away by the temptations of the devil, that he may not overpower you, that ye may not become his subjects at the last day; for behold, he rewardeth you no good thing.

 40 And now my beloved brethren, I would exhort you to have patience, and that ye bear with all manner of afflictions; that ye do not revile against those who do cast you out because of your exceeding poverty, lest ye become sinners like unto them;

 41 But that ye have patience, and bear with those afflictions, with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from all your afflictions.

 

It was a cool experience because Sean completely understood what this scripture was saying and in his words "this is exactly what I was going through that night." So after this he said he definitely wants to be baptized on the 8th of march and he will take it to the Lord first that night and text us his answer. So the picture I sent you guys is what he sent us that Monday evening! We were all freaking out in the flat, its a 4 man flat and we were all rejoicing!! Hahaha so funny, but so powerful and great! I won't ever forget this. I think Sean said he wants me to baptize him and I told him to pray first about it and then come back to us on it. We are seeing him tonight to plan his baptism and teach a few things. :)

 

Miracle #2!! On the same Monday with Sean:

Mondays are our P-days, so during our p-day I was looking for a shirt and a store called Superdry. I love this store. I went there to buy a shirt that I wanted for a while now, and when I got there they didn't have my size  (cause I'm fat) They told me to go to another Superdry store that I barely discovered the previous week, it was tiny. So we went there and there was only one guy that was working. I asked him if he had the shirt I wanted and the size, he went and got it for me. When he came back he noticed our badges, and asked loads of questions. We had a good conversation and he was interested in what we shared. We asked if we could meet up with him that week, he said yes, but not till Sunday evening though. We scheduled him in. (His name is Scott) We met up with him last night with an awesome member (Joe Jolliffe, the guy who took me to the temple) and taught the Restoration. It was an amazing teach! Scott soaked it all in and really enjoyed the teach. We invited him to be baptized on the 29th of March and he said YES!! He was so sincere and wants to come back to church. He was kicked out of his last church because he sinned and I guess they don't understand the Atonement at all. (He was from the Evangelical church.)

 

As of now we have 5 baptismal dates and they are solid! Anthony and Melanie just need more time...Melanie has some concerns that she's trying to resolve. We are helping her. I'm really sad that I won't be able to be here for all these baptisms, but I am so grateful that I will be here from Sean's!! SO BLESSED RIGHT NOW!!

 

I love you all so very much you guys!!!

I will see you very soon!! ;)

 

Cheers from England!!

{February 24, 2014}

How are all of you doing? Thank you for your emails, I love reading them to see how you have been doing and of course the inspirational things you share with me! Thank you so much!!

 

First thing...WOW!! We got a new member in the family!!! Good little baby Ollie!! I am so excited to meet all these new babies!! I love their faces!!! We have a beautiful family!!!

So remember how when Whit and Dane had a baby...little codie, and when she was born my companion at the time was named Cody! Weird huh!!

And now Oliver has been born. Guess what my companions name is now...you guessed it, Oliver!! How crazy you guys! Now every time I play with my nephews and nieces I will be reminded of my companions! Ha ha so I thought that was funny!

Congrats again Steph and Colb!! :) I love all the pics! Keep sending more, all of you! :)

 

This week has been great!! We are teaching so many people it's insane!! I feel like I'm in a different mission because people are keeping their appointments with us and also commitments. So the Lord is blessing us like crazy and I am pretty happy! I didn't think my mission would end like this. So this is what's keeping me going! It's just awesome.

 

Anthony & Melanie, they are wonderful! I treat them like they were my own brother and sister. I was on exchange with a kid in my district named Elder Wolfgramm. He's half Tongan and he's huge!!! He has one leg, he lost it from cancer when he was 13. He's a beast, but the most pure and holy missionary I have ever met. He was called at first to be an English speaking missionary, and Pres. Miller randomly called him to speak chines down here in Plymouth with another American Chinese speaker. It's only been a few weeks, and he can already speak Chinese really well, he can have a pretty good conversation with Chinese people. I have been experiencing miracles every time I see this kid, because the Lord is blessing him with the gift of tongues, like hard core!! He came with me to teach Anthony and Melanie, and it went really well!! Wolfgramm is a powerhouse teacher, they were really touched by his testimony and story. They still want to be baptized, but they don't know if they have received an answer yet, that the 8th is their date. I so hope so, but we are shooting for it!! Please pray for them!

On the exchange, we were walking down a really steep hill, and we came across a little ally way, and a car was backing up to turn around as we were walking across that street. Randomly we hear yelling in the car and this guy gets out of his car and just starts freaking out at us and is swearing like crazy! He continues for a few minutes and he threw a coco cola bottle at us and completely missed by a very long shot and we were only like 40 feet away from him. We were even on the bottom part of the hill and he missed that bad. Ha ha I was laughing and the guy still continued to swear and yell at us to fight him. Ha ha Elder Wolfgramm was so ready for a beat down, but we just laughed and said "have a good day" and slowly walked down the hill as he was yelling at us...ha ha so funny.

 

Well I have no time, sorry, but I sure love you all so much!!!

I'll hear from you soon!!!!

 

Cheers mates!!

 

Keep Anthony, Melanie, Sean and Molly in your prayers and for baptisms on the 8th of March!!