Monday, August 6, 2012

Elder Derek Keele- August 6, 2012

Dear family,

I´m so glad that the weekend all worked out. The Lord always seems to bless our family so much! I bet it was great to relax with the family for a few days. And dutch oven! That sounds so delicious! Go Jordan! I bet he will love being a teacher! Wow, the TRC is amazing. There is definitely heavenly help in all we do.

Tocopilla is beautiful! Sadly, I bet my idea of beauty has decayed a little in my time in the dessert haha, but I really love it here. You can see the ocean from everywhere in the town! There is still no green. We are surrounded by giant piles of brown dirt, but the ocean is wonderful. And the town is really `linda`. The sunsets are amazing! :D I´ll be sure to take more pictures this week.

Elder Diaz is from Santiago. He is an amazing teacher, and I can tell he truly loves the people here.

I just read that Jessica is engaged!!!! :D :D :D That is so exciting! When is the wedding? I feel weird and nervous that I haven´t met him. But everything I have heard tells me he is awesome. So I´m happy for you both! :D

Yesterday church was super good. I love testimony meeting! And then for Sunday school the class was really good. We talked about the roles of each person in the family. It amazes me how members of the church are able to have such big families. People here have two kids and seem to have the hardest time. But in the church, like our family, 8 kids! The gospel is amazing and truly our loving Heavenly Father knows exactly how to help us keep our big families together and happy.

We had a zone conference last Friday. We are doing another competition in the mission like the March madness things, but with the Olymipics. We spent about 30 minutes of everyone just asking what counts and doesn´t count, number wise. But at one point President Bruce got up in the back of the room and shared 1 Corinthians about 10:19, or something close to that, that says ´when I was a child I spoke as a child and thought as a child. But when I became a man I put away childish things.´ He said we all know what we should be doing as missionaries. We all know what really helps people and what doesn´t. We should not focus on little things and opinions so much that it takes our focus away from what is truly important. With this little competition, it is just to help us work even harder and smarter. We are here in the mission to help people. To save souls. To bring happiness into their lives.

I love this mission, and I love the people. All of Alice´s family is just amazing. The grandma especially. She can barely see or move, but she goes to church every Sunday and loves the gospel already. She is probably the most awesome lady. Her daughter Juana is going to be baptized this Saturday. She has been waiting a couple months, but finally decided that she really does know the church is true. They all tell me that their whole extended family has been so much happier the last few months!

Alice is such an amazing missionary. She comes with us to many lessons, not just with her family. And she just always seems to know what to say. She follows the Spirit. Something the teacher in Sunday school said is that generally men are harder and don´t express themselves, but women are very good at just saying what they feel. I can´t imagine how good sister missionaries must all be.

Thank you for your prayers! I definitely feel them! I have been so blessed and love helping others every day.

Love,
Elder Keele

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