Thank you for the Priesthood Line Dad! That is amazing to me. 11 steps away from Christ!
And thank you, Mom, for the special experiences. I love reading them. The trek is going to be great, and those must have been amazing missionaries. And it is good to hear from Marcos as well!
And thank you, Tammie, for writing me! I loved your letter so much that I printed it out :D
The pictures:
Look at that! Rain! It sprinkled for a couple hours last Thursday! That is a car below our pension.
Picture 2, Andrea and Alejandro´s wedding! It was so great! They both seem so much happier and hearing their testimonies later that day in the church reminded me of Jamie and Travis´s wedding.
Picture 3, I met a guy from another branch that lived in Provo for about 15 years! And worked washing dishes in Los Hermanos, and also at Meadow Gold by Grandma´s house! It was really neat to talk to someone that knows the states, Orem, and even State Street!
Happy Birthday on Thursday Stephanie!!! 15. You are one year away from driving and dating. Whoa man! I remember 15 as the age where you can almost do a bunch of things, but not quite. haha. But it has remained my favorite number. So congrats! I hope you have a wonderful day!
Can I ask a favor of everyone in the family? The next time you have a chance to write during family night, could you write my companion, Elder Hertler? He is low on letters. He is from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and he is a stud if I´ve ever met one. He is surely the best missionary in our mission. But he needs letters to keep his spirits up because his family doesn´t take the time right now. I pray that they will, but until then, I´m sure getting a few letters from people in the states would be neat. Tell him about life in the states and share your testimony. It will mean a lot to him :D
Thank you for all your support! I had some really neat experiences last week, and I will have to put them in letters because I never have enough time here!
I love you all and will write more next week!
Especially an email to Tammie, I´m so sorry for not doing so this week!
Love, Elder Keele
Monday, April 23, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Elder Derek Keele, April 9, 2011
I was not able to read the email last week until just now, but that is
totally okay. I am super blessed to have a mom that writes every week.
My companion still doesn´t get emails from his family. Only about once
a month from his brother that is also serving a mission. If there is
anyone that needs to feel more love from his family, it is my companion. I have
been overly blessed. :) Don´t worry about me being homesick. I do miss
everyone very much, but I´m here to work :D And I still love every
minute.
My Spanish is coming. A lot of the other missionaries tell me that it
is good, but when we teach and are actually with people, I still can´t
always understand or say everything to help the conversation. But I´m
getting there.
Haha David Archuletta. That is so cool that you saw him at the MTC! A couple
weeks before I left the MTC there were rumors that he was going to
serve in Santiago Chile. And I´m guessing those are true now. It
would´ve been way cool to talk to him in the MTC. I agree, he is
probably so much happier now away from the world. I´m sure he is a
great missionary and very humble.
Alejandro and Andrea are excited for this week! Thursday they will
get married civilly and he will be baptized the 21st. We can already
see that their family has changed. They are much happier, and my
companion actually told Andre the same thing! Alejandro will
change as he lives the gospel and they will both be much better and
happier! :D
I am sure that I will have no problem finding a family to help me
Skype :D That has come by so fast! By that time I will have been out
about 6 months!
Thank you, Mom, for giving me the love for many foods. The olives here
are very different (they are like the green ones but not as good) but
I still like them a lot. And they are everywhere! Pizza, desserts,
snacks, etc. Many missionaries don´t like them at all. And I still
haven´t had something I didn´t like and I haven´t gotten sick. I am
super blessed food wise. The only problem is it makes me fat haha. I
got to check my weight in my zone leaders pension the other day
and.... drum role... after all the sweating here the first 2 months in
Chile, I have gained another 4 pounds haha. That is about 23 total now
including the MTC. But I feel healthy. Hopefully a little of that is
muscle haha.
I haven´t figured out why yet, but our Elder´s quorum president is so
dedicated and converted to the gospel. And he and his wife are
converts of about only 5 years! But he and our branch president have
got to be the most dedicated people I´ve met in this first area. We
just had a baptism last Saturday, Victor Stuardo, and he is a father
whose wife and daughter are members. I´m so glad for the great
leaders we have in this branch that help everyone participate and
hopefully become as converted as they are. I know I am going to miss
this sector the day I leave.
Yesterday we had the most people attend church yet! 100! I think it
being Easter helped. It was a great day yesterday. I even got to
listen to the great talk President Monson gave a couple years ago ¨He
is Risen¨. It was really great to hear it and remember the Savior
more.
Thank you for everything! I am been exceedingly blessed (;) ) here and am
loving helping everyone. The gospel is amazing.
Love, Elder Derek Keele
totally okay. I am super blessed to have a mom that writes every week.
My companion still doesn´t get emails from his family. Only about once
a month from his brother that is also serving a mission. If there is
anyone that needs to feel more love from his family, it is my companion. I have
been overly blessed. :) Don´t worry about me being homesick. I do miss
everyone very much, but I´m here to work :D And I still love every
minute.
My Spanish is coming. A lot of the other missionaries tell me that it
is good, but when we teach and are actually with people, I still can´t
always understand or say everything to help the conversation. But I´m
getting there.
Haha David Archuletta. That is so cool that you saw him at the MTC! A couple
weeks before I left the MTC there were rumors that he was going to
serve in Santiago Chile. And I´m guessing those are true now. It
would´ve been way cool to talk to him in the MTC. I agree, he is
probably so much happier now away from the world. I´m sure he is a
great missionary and very humble.
Alejandro and Andrea are excited for this week! Thursday they will
get married civilly and he will be baptized the 21st. We can already
see that their family has changed. They are much happier, and my
companion actually told Andre the same thing! Alejandro will
change as he lives the gospel and they will both be much better and
happier! :D
I am sure that I will have no problem finding a family to help me
Skype :D That has come by so fast! By that time I will have been out
about 6 months!
Thank you, Mom, for giving me the love for many foods. The olives here
are very different (they are like the green ones but not as good) but
I still like them a lot. And they are everywhere! Pizza, desserts,
snacks, etc. Many missionaries don´t like them at all. And I still
haven´t had something I didn´t like and I haven´t gotten sick. I am
super blessed food wise. The only problem is it makes me fat haha. I
got to check my weight in my zone leaders pension the other day
and.... drum role... after all the sweating here the first 2 months in
Chile, I have gained another 4 pounds haha. That is about 23 total now
including the MTC. But I feel healthy. Hopefully a little of that is
muscle haha.
I haven´t figured out why yet, but our Elder´s quorum president is so
dedicated and converted to the gospel. And he and his wife are
converts of about only 5 years! But he and our branch president have
got to be the most dedicated people I´ve met in this first area. We
just had a baptism last Saturday, Victor Stuardo, and he is a father
whose wife and daughter are members. I´m so glad for the great
leaders we have in this branch that help everyone participate and
hopefully become as converted as they are. I know I am going to miss
this sector the day I leave.
Yesterday we had the most people attend church yet! 100! I think it
being Easter helped. It was a great day yesterday. I even got to
listen to the great talk President Monson gave a couple years ago ¨He
is Risen¨. It was really great to hear it and remember the Savior
more.
Thank you for everything! I am been exceedingly blessed (;) ) here and am
loving helping everyone. The gospel is amazing.
Love, Elder Derek Keele
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Elder Derek Keele, April 2, 2011
The pictures are of us cleaning a 1976ish Mini Cooper. It doesn´t even work at the moment, but he plans on getting it running again. We have washed 4 cars in the last week. Service!
Also, our awesome missionary dog, Mason! He is so cool! He usually comes to our district meetings and he walks around with any missionaries that he finds. That day he came to our pension and hung out for a bit. He is so cool!
And our cowboy hats were for a Relief Society Hat dance thing last Friday.
Conference! I loved conference weekend! We weren´t able to go to the first Saturday session, but we made it to the rest. The whole time listening I was wishing that our investigators could hear the talks. If everyone took in the counsel we were given, what a better world this would be!
I loved Elder M. Russell Ballard´s talk about the family. He said that if the family is the base of the community, the whole community will be better off. The family is so important, and really is a divine organization from the Lord.
We have been working with one family in particular the last month. The parents are not married, but the mom is so strong in the gospel and has a lot of faith. The dad is not a member, but he has a testimony and knows this church is true. In order for him to be baptized, they must get married. For the past month they have kind of switched off on their desire to get married. First he didn´t want to, then when he said yes she said no. And that´s how it´s been. They are in a really hard time now especially because he lost his job a couple weeks ago. Sister Andrea has been having such a hard time because she says she has been having a battle inside herself and has so much pain every day. She wants to do what is right, but she can´t come to decide to get married because she doesn´t feel that Alejandro will give her the support she needs. We have been working with them a lot lately, and Sunday morning we stopped by. During that lesson I felt more love for an investigator than I have had so far in the mission. I want her and her family to be happy so badly, and I know that they can be if they will live the gospel! They agreed to go to the Sunday morning session, and they did. I sat by them, and with their rowdy 5 year-old that we were all trying to calm down, I didn´t think that they were able to really listen to the speakers and feel the Spirit. But about an hour after the meeting Elder Hertler called to check up on them, and they said that they are now going to get married! I don´t know what was said that made them finally decide that, but I know that they did feel the Spirit as they listened to the Prophet speak. Oh how I love conference.
It is sad though that the only session that was really well attended by many people was the Sunday morning session, which was at 1:00 here, about when church is. The Saturday ones and the Sunday afternoon session had only a small portion of the people. Next time conference comes around we hope to help the people see what a blessing each session is. I learned a lot and got answers to many questions.
Oh ya! I haven´t told you that I got your package! I got it about the 20th of March, a month after it was sent I think. All of the Elders and I loved the candy :D And thank you for sending me the stories of our ancestors. They were all amazing to read. To think that it was so long ago that some of our family joined the church. And the faith they had is incredible. The stories of William and Sarah Mendenhall amaze me. They had no family support from their parents, and they said some terrible things about them and the church, but they still followed the prophet.
Could you send me my priesthood line? Just all the names over email would be great. I want to share it with people to show how special it is and that the authority really has come from Jesus Christ Himself. Thanks!
I might try and put a package together in the next few weeks so if there is anything that anyone would like in particular let me know :) (Like candy or food or stuff)
Sister Williamson told me that the ward is doing a 40 day fast for missionary work. That is so cool! And maybe that can help explain the tremendous blessings I have had in my first couple months here. Thank you for all of your prayers! I have definitely felt them!
Thank you for everything!
Love, Elder Derek Keele
Also, our awesome missionary dog, Mason! He is so cool! He usually comes to our district meetings and he walks around with any missionaries that he finds. That day he came to our pension and hung out for a bit. He is so cool!
And our cowboy hats were for a Relief Society Hat dance thing last Friday.
Conference! I loved conference weekend! We weren´t able to go to the first Saturday session, but we made it to the rest. The whole time listening I was wishing that our investigators could hear the talks. If everyone took in the counsel we were given, what a better world this would be!
I loved Elder M. Russell Ballard´s talk about the family. He said that if the family is the base of the community, the whole community will be better off. The family is so important, and really is a divine organization from the Lord.
We have been working with one family in particular the last month. The parents are not married, but the mom is so strong in the gospel and has a lot of faith. The dad is not a member, but he has a testimony and knows this church is true. In order for him to be baptized, they must get married. For the past month they have kind of switched off on their desire to get married. First he didn´t want to, then when he said yes she said no. And that´s how it´s been. They are in a really hard time now especially because he lost his job a couple weeks ago. Sister Andrea has been having such a hard time because she says she has been having a battle inside herself and has so much pain every day. She wants to do what is right, but she can´t come to decide to get married because she doesn´t feel that Alejandro will give her the support she needs. We have been working with them a lot lately, and Sunday morning we stopped by. During that lesson I felt more love for an investigator than I have had so far in the mission. I want her and her family to be happy so badly, and I know that they can be if they will live the gospel! They agreed to go to the Sunday morning session, and they did. I sat by them, and with their rowdy 5 year-old that we were all trying to calm down, I didn´t think that they were able to really listen to the speakers and feel the Spirit. But about an hour after the meeting Elder Hertler called to check up on them, and they said that they are now going to get married! I don´t know what was said that made them finally decide that, but I know that they did feel the Spirit as they listened to the Prophet speak. Oh how I love conference.
It is sad though that the only session that was really well attended by many people was the Sunday morning session, which was at 1:00 here, about when church is. The Saturday ones and the Sunday afternoon session had only a small portion of the people. Next time conference comes around we hope to help the people see what a blessing each session is. I learned a lot and got answers to many questions.
Oh ya! I haven´t told you that I got your package! I got it about the 20th of March, a month after it was sent I think. All of the Elders and I loved the candy :D And thank you for sending me the stories of our ancestors. They were all amazing to read. To think that it was so long ago that some of our family joined the church. And the faith they had is incredible. The stories of William and Sarah Mendenhall amaze me. They had no family support from their parents, and they said some terrible things about them and the church, but they still followed the prophet.
Could you send me my priesthood line? Just all the names over email would be great. I want to share it with people to show how special it is and that the authority really has come from Jesus Christ Himself. Thanks!
I might try and put a package together in the next few weeks so if there is anything that anyone would like in particular let me know :) (Like candy or food or stuff)
Sister Williamson told me that the ward is doing a 40 day fast for missionary work. That is so cool! And maybe that can help explain the tremendous blessings I have had in my first couple months here. Thank you for all of your prayers! I have definitely felt them!
Thank you for everything!
Love, Elder Derek Keele
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