We are walking everywhere and talking with everyone...

Changes!!

Hey fam what up?? I hope all is going great with all of you. Well I am doing great. Time is going by so fast. I felt like I just wrote you, but it’s cool- I’m willing to write again. ok so there were changes this last week and now I have a new companion. Elder Zimmerman went to Milagro and I am still here in la Pradera. Yup but it’s all cool. I am enjoying my time here so much. ya well my new comp’s name is Elder Smith and he is from Washington state. He is a big boy- let’s just say that!!! lol Elder Smith is in his first week here in Ecuador so that probably means that I am training again. lol but really he acts like he has as much time as me. lol he really is a great missionary and a really hard worker. I mean really hard. lol I think the Lord wants me to play basketball when I get off the mish because he put me with Elder Smith lol or president received some revelation. Really Elder Smith is way big and really into working out. Before the mish he was bench pressing 320 and squatting 500. Walking With Elder Zimmerman I felt like the Hulk but now walking with Elder Smith I feel like Elastic man. lol Every morning we have been waking up early to be able to do more work outs. On Friday I did leg work outs for the first time in all my mish and today is Monday and it still hurts to sit down. No joke, I was walking or better said waddling down the streets this last week. I think by tomorrow I will be good to do more leg work outs. But no joke I have a feeling with Elder Smith I am going to by gaining more weight. Also, he has got me eating like the healthiest food and looking at the nutrition facts on the back of everything. lol I am pumped!! I can’t wait to get big again. lol. And it feels good have a workout buddy. lol also we are working really hard in the Lord’s work. This last week we had a baptism and it turned out just great. We have three more people with baptism dates that should be getting baptized in this coming month. And we are walking everywhere and talking with everyone. The work is going just great. I couldn’t be happier with where I am and what I am doing. I’ll send you guys some pics of the baptism with this message or with another so that you can see who got baptized and who is my comp and how big he really is. Adriana got baptized. She was the one we were teaching a few weeks back but couldn’t get baptized at that time, but everything turned out great, and she was able to get baptized. Man this computer won’t let me send those pics. I might send them with another message. Oh so to answer your other question- yes Cody is still in my zone and we are just ballin it up here baptizing people. Cody is really doing great I think. He looks really happy. Yesterday I saw him and it looks like he is understanding the language a lot more now. Also, he is having a baptism with his comp. I am super glad that he is doing so well. lol ok so I am going to rap this letter up because I still gotta write pres. I just want you all do have a great week. I hope things are going great back at home. I love you all very much and miss you all a lot.

With love,

Elder Keables

I love the mish and I love you all ...

Hey Fam!!

Hey fam! How are you all!! Well I had just a fine week. Which I’ll tell you all about after I answer the questions mom had for me. ok mom so talking about the custom made leather case. So the thing is it like my Bible and my Book of Mormon are two different books so I would have to buy two cases and that I think is going to cost more. I could buy one for my scriptures in English but I am not sure what you want me to do. If I buy it for my English scripts it might be better because then I could carry them to church in the case but ya idk, you tell me what you think. Ok so talking about my suit, do you think I should get it tailored? Does it look too big in the pics. When I put it on I really don’t notice the difference, but I am sure you guys do. But I’ll check to see how much it would cost. ok cool. It’s so crazy to think that Jordan is in Mexico right now and that Taylor is getting ready for his mish. And are you serious about Chris Ackerman getting back from the mish? Did he really leave 6 months before me? How is he doing? Did he change a lot or is he about the same? That’s so wack!! Man I can’t believe how quick time is gong by- it’s so insane. Anywho- so talking about new things. This week we had another baptism. I told you about the Hermana Marcela right. She is the lady that is in the other sector where we are working. Well she got baptized on Sat and confirmed on Sunday of this week. She is the one who I was telling you all about the last week. The one where we all went to visit her and she started to cry- ya her. She got baptized and it was a really nice baptism. About 20 people showed up and it turned out really nice. We are still working with the Hermana Clara she should be getting baptized in just a few weeks, maybe even this week. Also a few weeks ago I told you about the Hermana Adriana, well she also might get baptized this week if things turn out good. We are working hard and doing our best so that the both of them can have the opportunity to get baptized this week, but we will see. Tonight in we are going to have changes and me and Elder Zimmerman already have two changes with each other, so we will see what happens. I guess you all have to wait until the next week to hear about the changes. lol If I knew I would tell you all but they haven’t told us yet. Hey mom- you were talking about me going to the airport in Chico, well did you know that elder Vuivoc or something like that is the new secretary. He is the elder from Sac that’s good friends with Kyle Wagner, but ya so I think he should know there is an airport in chico.lol maybe.

I just want you all do know that I am doing great. I love the mish and I love you all and miss you all very much. Please say hi to everyone for me. Until next week. love you all!

I told you about the Hermana Marcela, right?

In that moment the Spirit testified to her that this is the true church...

January 17, 2011

Hey fam!!

ok I am happy to say that today I will have a little bit more time to write and tell you what’s going on in my life here in the mish. Ok so, yes me and Cody had a great reunion and had quite some time to talk while we were playing ping-pong. It was so nice to be able to sit down and have some time to talk to him and think back on the good times. Wow a lot of time has gone by but he is the still same Cody (so cool). It’s funny because really he looks a lot taller or maybe I have gotten smaller, I am not really sure. lol Also I think his voice has gotten deeper. lol He reminds me a little bit of his dad. lol Mom I think your right, he does seem like he is doing a lot better now. He has a really good companion that is going to help him out a lot. It’s funny because in the last 2 weeks I have already seen Cody like 4 times and every time I see him, it just freaks me out. Like seeing his face catches me off guard. lol I really am so pumped that he is going to be speaking Spanish along with Taylor and me. It’s going to be so sick. All I can say is MEXICO TRIPS!!! lol Don’t worry mom, when I get the chance I will be taking some more pics of us.

ok so talking about the work!! You know it’s going great. The same weekend that Cody got changed there were a few changes in the zone and they took out one two of the district leaders. So now there are 10 missionaries in my district and Cody´s comp is the district leader for the other district in the zone. Also, because they took out the other district leader whose sector was right by ours, well now me and my comp are in charge of the two sectors. We have been working in the two but mostly in ours. There are 3 people in the other sector that we are working with. Working in the both sectors makes things really busy here. Really, we have been so busy!! ok so talking about the baptisms. Well this last week me and my comp had one baptism. Ya Ya!! lol We baptized the daughter of one of our investigators and the mom is going to get baptized this week if everything turns out good. We had it planned that the mom and the daughter were going to get baptized the same day, but the mom needs to have an interview with our president, and that should be happening this week. The little girl that got baptized name is Sasha and the moms name is Clara Icaza. I’ll be sending pics a little bit later. Also we will be having another baptism in the other ward or sector that we are working in. the hermana’s name is Marcela. If you guys can, could you be keeping these people names in your prayers so that everything goes good and we can have these baptisms. They are really amazing people with testimonies really strong. ok so just a little experience that we had this week that I will never forget. ok so on Tuesday we had a lesson planned with the sister Marcela, and the zone leaders, and also the assistant to the president asked if they could come with us to meet her and help her get ready for her baptism. Me and my comp gladly accepted the help knowing that it really was going to take a miracle to baptize this lady. Really, she is like 75 years old and has been to pretty much every church you could imagine. Also, she told us that she had listened to the missionaries before. When we talked with her the first time she wasn’t that excited to get baptized. So we all went and she let us in to share a message. We had no idea what we were going to teach, so we just starting talking and listening to her. One of the zone leaders pulled out some scriptures and starting sharing them and the assistant started doing the same. Me my comp and the other district leader just kind of sat there listening. After they shared their scriptures, the other zone leader Elder Tocamo from Panama shared his testimony. And let me tell you, it was one of the strongest testimonies that I have ever heard in all my life. The Spirit was so strong that everyone in the room could feel it and there was no denying it. As Elder Tocamo was sharing his testimony, the sister began to cry. We all knew that she had felt the Spirit, and in that moment the Spirit testified to her that this is the true church and that what we teach are true things. Since that day we have visited her a few times, and she looks so different. She almost glows when we look at her. She is so happy to see us. She was so happy to go to church. She knows and we know that she knows that our message is true. Anyway, I think I better wrap this up because the people that are in this place or computer room are saying so many things that it is really making this letter hard to write. Anyway I want you all to know that I love you and that I miss you. I’m always praying for all you. I hope you all have a great week and I’ll talk you all later.

Love you!

Con Amor, Elder Keables

We baptized the daughter of one of our investigators...

Cody is in my zone and saw him this week ...

Hey fam! I’ll write you later, but just want you to know that Cody is in my zone and saw him this week and had the opportunity to talk with him for awhile.. ya it was so sick to see that man!! He has changed a little, but is still the man!!! J

Fam,
Ok so I am going to send a few pics with this letter. The first is of me in front of some of those things (New Year’s huge piñata like things). The second is a pic of me and my comp the day of New Years. As you can see, we were really bored that day and didn’t have that much to do. And the third is of me and THE ELDER STORM!!! Today we went to the church and played some ping pong and we had some good quality time to catch up on the latest news. He told me the whole story with his comp and it really just made me a little mad. But he looks like he is over it and that he is now doing a lot better. It just makes me mad that his comp would do something like that to him being a new missionary. It’s good to see that he went home. The comp he has now is way cool. Hey so if everything goes well we will have 2 baptisms this week. But I’ll tell you about that the next week. Sorry I gotta go because I spent too much time talking to Cody and we have only an hour to buy food. But I want you all to know that I love you all and miss you very much.

With love, Elder Keables