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

Elder Keables and Elder Storm together!!!

I felt like that was a blessing from the Lord...

Fam!!!,

Hey everyone how are you all?? Happy New Year!!! Wow we are now in 2011, can you believe that? It’s so crazy how fast time has gone by. This last year went by so fast that it really surprised me. Wow that is crazy that Jordan will be taking off this week. I bet he is way excited but also a little bit nervous about going? The family that he is going to live with knows Spanish or no? That’s cool that he gets to know Mexico and learn Spanish. I am sure that he is going to love it. Wow, Taylor going to the temple- that is way cool. When I talked to him he was telling me about that and said he was pretty excited.
Ok so just like the last time New Years was so crazy!! They burned those big dolls that I told you guys about the last year. I got some pics of a few this year and I’ll see if I can send you guys some today. Ok so on the 31st we had to be in our house by 2pm in the afternoon and we couldn’t leave our house until 2pm the next day. The thing that stunk is we really couldn’t see them burning the dolls very well because they took them out to the main street to burn and we couldn’t see and we couldn’t leave our house to go and look. But luckily one of the members that lives by our house came by and picked up our cameras and took them out to take videos of all the burning. So I did get some pretty cool videos. I’ll have to send them when I have enough pics to send back in a CD. It was pretty much impossible to sleep so we ended up playing chess all night lol. No we played until 12.30 then things started to calm down and that’s when we went to bed. But ya it was pretty crazy. I would have to say that last year was more crazy because I wasn’t used to Ecuador at that time. lol but it was still cool. To tell you the truth, I am glad that it is all over because it was a little bit hard to work during the last two weeks. So many people were drinking and they all had their families visiting and all that good stuff. So it was a little hard. I think things should be picking up here in this week that is coming.
ok so you asked about the baptism. Well as of right now we don’t have anyone with baptism dates. We had a few but they didn’t go to church this last week so they lost their dates. We are going to just keep working. We have a few people that are really good, we just need to help them get prepared for baptism. Or we have people we just need to ask them to get baptized. I am pretty sure that this week we are going to have a really good week. I can just feel it. Now that the holidays are over and things are getting back to normal.. I am pretty sure that if we work hard we will be able to have baptisms in this month. 2 or 3, but we have to work hard. This last Sunday I felt really bad because when we got to church we didn’t have any investigators in church, and we had worked hard and invited so many. Also we went by their houses in the morning but they didn’t show up. Really I felt horrible. We worked so hard but it all felt like it was for nothing. During Sacrament meeting I honestly felt like crying. I started to pray and pray and asking the Lord for help. Because if we don’t have people in church we won’t have baptisms. Well we went to the other 2 hours of church and at the end we went to a meeting with the bishop and the ward mission leader and as we were in the meeting, one of the counselors of the stake president knocked on the door and asked if we were the missionaries from the ward la pradera. I told him yes and he said that he had an investigator for me and called this lady in with her daughter. We found out where she lives and found out that she had gone to church with her boyfriend awhile back in another ward and that she wanted to look for the ward that she belonged to so she went to another building this last Sunday and found the counselor of the president and he brought her to our ward. She went to the other ward and I believe she was there for church and everything. Ok long story short I don’t know why but I felt like that was a blessing from the Lord, and I feel like she will be a future baptism. Tomorrow we are going to teach her, and the bishop is going with us. So we hope all goes well. We also have so many other good people to teach, we just hope that they go to church this coming week.
Well I have been talking too much and we are going to go play b-ball so I think I am going to let you all go. I love you all and I want you all to know that I know that the church is true and I love this work and I love the mission. Also I love you all very much. Thanks for everything!!

Love,
Elder Keables