Where we live...

Our door...

My wall...

My bed... notice the bike on my pillow...

My bike... even with a basket!!!...

My cute companion... on our balcony...

More Thanksgiving pictures...

Relief Socity Thanksgiving Activity...

 

 Sisters and Hermanas on Thanksgiving Day...


  

Little Rock Spanish District...

   

What we ate...

 
 

Thanksgiving Photo Shoot with Joane Rivera...

 

Hermana Thornton and I go get Chick-fil-A every Monday.

The wifi at the church isn't working today.  But luckily right now (and the next two weeks) we're driving A FREAKING 2017 MALIBU so we are sitting in the Chick-fil-A parking lot with our chicken sandwiches emailing from the wifi in our car.  #spoiled

Gah.  On Saturday, I somehow got roped into teaching Sunday School yesterday.  Basically, the scariest experience of my life!  But, I got an email from Mom saying that she taught Sunday School too.  So that's kind of cool.  :)  

I was so scared because...

1. Spanish 
2. Lots of Spanish in front of lots of people = scary 
3. I don't know how to teach Sunday school! 
4. I literally barely know what's going on when I'm just sitting there with the English manual and the Spanish manual focusing on trying to understand the lesson. 
5. I had one day to prepare. Aka I planned the lesson Sunday morning!

Taco Bell for lunch the day before I taught Gospel Principles the first time.
Hermana Thornton was writing her talk and I was preparing my lesson.
She's holding is a salsa packet and she wrote "te quiero" on it because I was stressing.

But I did it. I taught lesson 11 in the Gospel Principles manual, The Life of Christ.  Here's my lesson.  I hope you'll actually read it and think about the answers to my questions!

I started out by asking the question:  What does the Savior's life mean for us?  

From the He Led A Perfect Life part of the lesson: 

From His youth, Jesus obeyed all that was required of Him by our Heavenly Father.  Under the guidance of Mary and Joseph, Jesus grew much as other children grow.  He loved and obeyed the truth.  Luke tells us, “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him” 

By the time He was 12 years old, Jesus had grown in His understanding that He had been sent to do the will of His Father.  He went with His parents to Jerusalem.  When His parents were returning home, they discovered that He was not with their group.  They went back to Jerusalem to look for Him."  After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, and they were hearing him, and asking him questions."  “And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers." 

Joseph and Mary were relieved to find Him, but “they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us?  Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.”  Jesus answered her, saying, “Wist ye not that I must be about my [Heavenly] Father’s business?”  In order to fulfill His mission, Jesus was to do the will of His Father in Heaven.  “I do nothing of myself,” He declared, “but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things… I do always those things that please him."

We read some scriptures and I talked a little bit about how Christ gave up His will to do the will of the Father's.  I asked the question:  What does it mean to you that Christ gave up his will?  

My answer to that question is that it means that Christ has so much love for us.  The knowledge that we have a loving Savior is so important to me.  I want to show my gratitude and love to Him as well.  (Sorry that's so simple but really I can't say anything in Spanish more complex than that. So... #srynotsry)  And then I said that the Savior has showed us how to love and how to serve by His example.  

From the section, He Taught Us How To Love And Serve One Another:

Jesus spent His life serving others. He cured them of diseases. He made the blind see, the deaf hear, and the lame walk. Once when He was healing the sick, it became late and the people were hungry. Instead of sending them away, He blessed five loaves of bread and two fishes and miraculously was able to feed a multitude of 5,000 people.  He taught that whenever we find people hungry, cold, naked, or lonely, we should help them all we can. When we help others, we are serving the Lord.  Jesus loved others with all His heart. Often His heart was so full of compassion that He wept. He loved little children, the elderly, and the humble, simple people who had faith in Him. He loved those who had sinned, and with great compassion He taught them to repent and be baptized. He taught, “I am the way, the truth, and the life." 

Jesus even loved those who sinned against him and were unrepentant. At the end of His life, as He hung on the cross, He prayed to the Father for the soldiers who had crucified Him, pleading, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.". He taught, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you."

I talked a little about how I love the part where it says, "He loved the little children, the elderly, and the humble, simple people who had faith in Him." Christ loved everyone and served everyone. I asked: What is your favorite story from the life of Christ? And why? My answer is the story of the 10 Lepers. I love that passage because it shows how Christ really does love and serve all types of people. He loved even the lepers, who were cast out of their city.

From the section, He Redeemed Us From Our Sins and Saved Us From Death:

Near the end of His mortal ministry, Jesus prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for all the sins of mankind.  He had been condemned to die because He had testified to the people that He was the Son of God.  The night before His Crucifixion, Jesus went to a garden called Gethsemane.  Soon, He was weighed down by deep sorrow and wept as He prayed.   

Latter-day Apostle Orson F. Whitney was permitted to see the Savior’s suffering in a vision.  Seeing the Savior weep, he said: “I was so moved at the sight that I also wept, out of pure sympathy.  My whole heart went out to Him; I loved Him with all my soul, and longed to be with Him as I longed for nothing else."  Jesus “went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

In a modern revelation the Savior described how great His suffering was, saying it caused Him “to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit."  He suffered “according to the flesh,” taking upon himself our pains, sicknesses, infirmities, and sins.  No mortal person can comprehend just how great this burden was.  No other person could have endured such agony of body and spirit.  “He descended below all things … that he might be in all and through all things, the light of truth."

And then I asked the question: What are your feelings towards the Savior?

I know that the Savior loves each and every one of us. My favorite thing to teach is that through Him, we can be healed. We all know that through Him, we can be forgiven from our sins, but a lot of people forget that we can be healed from our pains too. Any time we ever feel alone, afraid, or are hurting, Christ's atonement can save us from that as well. I am so thankful to Him for everything he gave for me and for you. And because missionaries always try to leave with an invitation, I ended my lesson with an invitation.  And if you've read this far, then you've heard my lesson so this challenge applies to you too now. 😉 

The Church has put out a Christmas initiative this year called, Light the World. The Christmas season is a perfect time to remember Christ and show Him our love by serving others. Light the World is a challenge to serve someone each day of December and there's a video for each day as well as ideas on how to serve people. I invite you to serve someone everyday of December to show Christ your gratitude for His sacrifice for you.

ANYWAY, I think you deserve a funny story now: So for thanksgiving we went to the Bowen's and the Rivera's.  Mom, I'm assuming you have pictures from both?  Will you send those to me please?  Anyway, both were really good and I had rainbow jello at the Bowen's, which was so good.  Not as good as Dad's strawberry or raspberry jello though.  That's for sure my favorite.  Mostly because of the strawberries or raspberries in Dad's jello.  But as we were getting ready to leave, Hermana Bowen was like make sure you get pie!  So I was like ok, and I went over to get some pie.  I saw that one of the options was pecan pie.  And I just thought about how Mom loves pecan pie.   I freaking started tearing up!  I was trying so hard to hold it all in and be a normal person, but then Hermana Bowen asked me if I was ok and basically I just started crying!  She gave me a hug and it was really nice.  But I seriously had tears running down my face... because of pecan pie.  I WAS FREAKING CRYING ABOUT PECAN PIE.  I don't think I've ever sunk that low before or could ever in the future.  lol.  And Samantha's probably laughing at me right now and thinking why am I not surprised.  Haha!  I cry about everything!  But I don't really feel homesick that often, just when I see pecan pie.  lol.  

Before the pecan pie incident...

Little Rock Spanish Zone

I played my flute in church yesterday.  Thank you so much for sending it!  <with permission, BTW>  I loved it.  I played in both the English ward and the Spanish branch.  Afterwards, Elder Glass said, "I recorded it for you,  I figured you'd want to hear it.  :)  I thought that was really nice of him.  So I'll send you that, but, btw, I think I played better in the Spanish branch. 😊   (FYI:  There's no video, just sound.)

I love you.  Sorry this is super long.  I hope you laughed at my crying about pecan pie!

Love, Arianna

Happy Thanksgiving from the Wakolo's.

Literally 15 minutes to email today.

Hola hola!!!

Transfers this week!  I get to stay here in Little Rock with Hermana Thornton!  Our whole district is actually staying the same and I'm so happy about that.  I'm so excited for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years this transfer!  I get to spend all of them with some really great people!

ALSO I went to the temple today!  The temple is so awesome!  The rule of our mission is that we only get to go the month of our birthday, and then right before we go home.  So I don't get to go for another year.  :( :(  But it's ok.  In the temple, I was able to feel so much peace and the love of our Heavenly Father.  I know God loves each and every one of us.  

On the way to the temple, we stopped to see a friend of the sister going home.  (The one next to me.)

Memphis, Tennessee temple

I also saw Elder Pickering (from her CCM District) for a second today. That was cool.

The other day, we ran into a guy that speaks English and wanted to hear our message.  We told him that Christ lives and that through Him, we can be healed from all of our sins AND pains.  And then he asked how we know that.  How do we know that Christ lives?  He was in a wheelchair and his question was, if God exists and he loves us, why did he let bad things happen it him?  Why was he in a wheelchair?  We told him that it's because of agency.  Because we have been given the ability to choose, sometimes bad things happen because of the choices we have made.  And sometimes they happen because of the choices of other people.  A lot of times they happen because of the choices of other people.  But God wants us to come to Him.  He wants us to find peace though praying to him and studying his words in the scriptures.  And then this guy asked how I know this.  He was like, "I want to hear a story from your life. How do you know?"  So I told him about my surgeries.  I told him that I was born with a birth defect where the bone in my upper right jaw was bad and I didn't have the adult teeth there.  And in 8th grade, I had surgeries to fix this birth defect.  I had to have a bone graft and it was really hard to have that be a part of my life . It was hard to have doctors always looking at my face and stuff, knowing that they were looking for what was wrong with me.  And then my body rejected the bone graft.  So I had to try again... another bone graft.  I told him how during this whole process, I felt like crap..  a LOT.  So I prayed to my Heavenly Father.  And every time I prayed to Him... because I prayed lots of times... I felt His love.  I felt Him telling me that it was all ok, that I am loved, and that everything would work out.  Then the second time I had the surgery with a different surgeon, it did work out.  And it's all ok now.  I testified to this man that I know that our Heavenly Father loves me.  And he loves you.  And Jesus Christ does as well.

ALSO THIS WEEK I PLAYED MY FLUTE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 6 WEEKS!  I think that's the longest I've gone without playing in years.  Like probs 15 years!  It felt really good to play again.  Before English class on Tuesday, we were sitting and waiting in the foyer of the church when a brother in the other ward, Bro. Oisdad, started talking to us.  He asked which one of us plays the piano a little and I was like, "Me.  LOL!  But I can only play 2 hymns, so really, very little.  Apparently he plays the piano and kind of takes care of our branch as far as music goes.  (Elder Spencer usually plays the piano every Sunday but he's been here a while so we were discussing being nervous that he would leave because no one else can play.)  Then Bro. Oisdad said, "Well, we just might be singing those two hymns every Sunday!"  And then Hermana Thornton said, "She plays the flute!"  And he said, "Great!"   He then started talking about how we're going to do a musical number this coming Sunday. 

 On Wednesday we practiced and he just wanted me to play the melody of Love One Another while he played some cool chords and stuff.  And I was like, " Uhhh.... my mom sent me some music and I actually have a Love One Another that has some cool runs and stuff that I could do.  Unfortunately, it turns out he can't really read music that well so we're going to figure something else out.  But, I'm insisting that I do something more than the melody!  Hopefully I can send you a recording!  So yeah.  I get to play in church one Sunday!!!  :)  I'm so pumped!

ALSO I FREAKING KILLED IT THIS WEEK AT ZONE MEETING!  So in Preach My Gospel, there's 5 lessons that we teach.  And within those 5 lessons, there are sub-sections called Doctrinal Points.  And one of the things we're supposed to do in our mission is pick a Bible scripture and a Book of Mormon scripture for each doctrinal point and memorize all of the doctrinal points and which scriptures go for each one.  So for example, for the doctrinal point, God Is Our Loving Heavenly Father, my scriptures are John 3:16-17 and 2 Nephi 1:15.  And so by the time we've been here for 6 months, we need to have all 42 doctrinal points and which scriptures go with each one memorized.  At the beginning of our missionary meetings, people are called up to do their doctrinal points for everyone.  And on Monday, we were prepping for the Zone Meeting on Tuesday and Hermana Thornton started quizzing me on just the points for Lesson 4.   I was like, "I literally don't know any of these... I can't."  And she was like, " Okay, well, I guess you just won't be the greenie that does all the doctrinal points at the Zone Meeting."  And then I was like, "Wut???"  Apparently, at every zone meeting, they ask if there's a greenie that can recite all of their doctrinal points, aka all 42.  So, I was said, "Yeah, nope that's not going to be me.  I barely know only Lessons 1 and 2 and maybe 3."  But then I woke up Tuesday morning and I thought, "You know what?  I'm going to be that greenie!  I'm going to memorize Lessons 4 and 5 this morning!  So that's what I did while I got ready.  I showed Hermana Thornton that I knew them all and she was like, "Will you do it?!?  And I said, "Okay.  Yes!"   Later on, during the meeting, before they were even done asking the question, Hna T grabbed my hand and raised it for me that I could do the doctrinal points.  So I went up and FREAKING KILLED IT.  Boom!  I just listed them all off and I didn't even stop.  It was so cool!  Hermana Thornton told me that everyone was looking at me and looking at her, all impressed.  So that's the story of how I'm awesome.  :)   And then I got a Subway gift card as a prize!  Thanks Mom for helping me learn how to memorize things fast and well. :)

I think that's all the good stuff that happened this week.  I love you tons!  Have a happy Thanksgiving!!  We're going to the Bowen's for dinner on Thanksgiving AND NEXT WEEK HERMANA THORNTON AND I ARE GOING TO GO BUY CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!

Love, Nan

P.S.  Pictures from last night.

It's like freaking Harry Potter in here!

^^ What Hermana Thornton said when she opened the mailbox on my birthday lol  :)  (We had decided to send her 20 birthday cards for her 20th birthday... but ended up with 25.)

Savanah (cousin) got her mission call this week!  Mexico Puebla North, wahoooooo!!!!!  I was so happy to read that, that I actually started crying!  haha.  Like a tear or two actually rolled down my face!  lol.  I am so happy that she gets this opportunity to serve the people of Mexico and that we will both be able to speak Spanish!  Sorry to everyone else, but Hispanic people are literally the best.  I love speaking Spanish and being here!

We went on exchanges this week and I was really nervous because I took over the area!  And the STLs speak only English.  So I was really nervous to teach on my own because I wasn't sure if I know enough Spanish to be on my own!  But I did it!  We taught three lessons and we even had a member there for two of them, which was so so helpful!  But I learned that I know a lot more Spanish than I thought!  The first lesson was with A., a less active lady.  Last transfer, the Hermanas were working with her to start reading the Book of Mormon.  After not coming for a while, she came to church three weeks ago, so we went to visit her.  She told us that SHE WAS UP TO 1 NEPHI 14 in her reading!  The Book of Mormon brings about miracles!  So she came to church again two weeks ago and so then we went over to see if we could read with her.  (This is the exchange visit.)  She told us that she was up to 2 NEPHI 2!!!  That means she read about 10 chapters in about 5 days!!!  I am so, so happy!  We read the first 10 verses with her and talked about how Christ is our Redeemer and she actually bore her testimony of the comfort the Book of Mormon brings us!  It was so so awesome!  And then she came to church a third time in a row yesterday!!!  Miracles!!!

Taco Try with Sister Minster

And then we went to visit M again with Hermana Roper with us and that was a good lesson.  We read the first chapter of 1 Nephi 1 with M and had her mark all the names of Christ in the chapter.  It's really cool to see how much the scriptures talk about Christ, so if you need something to study in the Book of Mormon, I highly recommend that!

The third lesson was with V and her boyfriend.  They had so many questions about what are our beliefs about infant baptism, who is Joseph Smith, and what is the Book of Mormon!  They are so awesome!  Their Spanish is so fast, so it was very good that we had Hermana Roper with us because Sister Minster (who I was on exchanges with) doesn't speak Spanish.  But we ended up teaching them for like, an hour and a half!  And then at the end, Hermana Roper asked how he thinks he will receive his answer when he prays to ask if the Book of Mormon is true.  He told us that he thinks he and V will feel it differently, but he thinks he will just know.  Maybe a feeling in his heart!  Basically a perfect explanation of the Holy Ghost!  I am so excited to go back and teach them again!

One of my goals from exchanges is to ask simpler questions when I'm teaching.  Sometimes I get nervous to ask super simple questions because I don't want our investigators to feel like we're treating them like babies, especially if they're significantly older than us.  But Sister Minster helped me realize that they don't know a lot so it's important to ask simple questions that they can understand.

M MIRACULOUSLY CAME TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY!!!  Hermana Thornton and I could not stop smiling all during church, we were so happy!  I love her family so much.

The other day, I was studying in Preach My Gospel, chapter 4 because I am wanting to be better at recognizing exactly when I am feeling a prompting from the Spirit to do something so that I can do that thing right away.  I love the sentence on pg. 89 of PMG that says, " He will give you the power to deliver the message and to testify of Christ and His gospel."  I was reminded in my study that the Holy Ghost will invite to do good, verses Satan, who will invite to do bad.  I also love that PMG tells me exactly what I need to do to have the influence of the Spirit with me all the time.  On page 96, it says, "Your task is to live worthily, pray fervently, and learn to recognize and follow courageously the Spirit's guidance."  So my takeaway is that when I feel a prompting to do something good, then I need to do it right away because that is the Spirit telling me what to do.  This week I am working on doing that and not worrying about whether or not I'm getting a prompting for the Spirit or just a good idea.  If the prompting is good, then it is from the Spirit.  I also am wanting to work on praying more fervently to have the help of the Spirit with me all the time.

Next week is my first transfer and I get to go to the temple because it was my birthday this month on Monday!  I am so excited for that!

This is what bike week looks like.  :)

I love you and miss you so much!

Hermana Keller

P.S. In the freezing cold last night.  Look really close at the red truck in the background.  Some people in the branch, the ones driving the red truck, drove us from where we were teaching back to our apartment at the end of the night. (About a 45 minute bike ride.)  They are my new favorite people!!
 

 Another photo from the Taco Try...

Birthdays are to be celebrated!

(I had met Hermana Joane Rivera from the Rodney Parham Spanish Branch on the ALRM Mom Facebook page.  It can be difficult for missionaries to receive packages since they are not home a lot, so I asked if I could send Arianna's birthday package to her and the Hermanas would come pick it up at her house on Tuesday, Arianna's birthday.  The package came a day early (Thank you, USPS!) so she decided to invite them over for dinner and dessert on Monday, (Halloween can be pretty boring for missionaires) and even sent me pictures and a video.  I love you, Joane!)

Traditional Puerto Rican food... tostones!
(bottom left corner)
(Brother Rivera's family is from Puerto Rico, from a city where Bennett served his misison!)

Cookie Cake
Perfect for the girl who isn't a fan of regular birthday cake.

Feeling loved.  <3

On Wednesday, we went to go teach one of our new investigators, M.  Her parents have both passed away recently, so she takes care of her younger brother (7 years old) and sister (5 years old)  

We also brought one of the hermanas in the branch, Hermana Lopez, with us to our teaching appointment.  After the lesson, while we were getting ready to leave, M mentioned that it was her brother's birthday on Thursday.  But, she said, they weren't telling him because they didn't have enough money to do anything for his birthday.  Hermana Lopez said that she would bring over her two sons, who are also 7 and 5, the next day to sing M brother Happy Birthday.  Hermana Lopez also offered to bring a cake for M's little brother.  While we were driving home, Hermana Lopez called another hermana in the branch and invited her and her son to the birthday party we had decided we were going to give Christian.  We invited a third Hermana, who had taught M with us previously and she brought two other little girls in the branch.  When we got there on Thursday, we had us, 3 hermanas, and 5 kids from the branch coming to bring Christian a surprise birthday party!  He ended up getting 2 presents from two of the hermanas too!  It was so fun!  I'm so grateful for the hermanas in our branch and how much they care about missionary work and our investigators!

 

In our mission, we have this thing called impact sisters/elders.  Their job is to go around, visiting companionships and spend a few days with them.  Their goal is to help them improve their area and/or companionship.  This week Hermana Macfarlane came to impact us on Tuesday! (her birthday)  It was really fun!  We ended up splitting up for a while so that Heremana Thornton could go help one of the hermanas in the ward Visit Teach and then Hermana Macfarlane and I went to try to visit a potential investigator.  She ended up being busy, so we went and knocked on some doors in that trailer park.  We met 5 new people and made 5 return appointments!  It was so good!  And then later this week, we went to go visit one of those new people, Mi.  She was super open and acted like everything we were saying made sense and sounded familiar!  My hopes are high for her!  The thing that Hermana Macfarlane suggested that I can do to improve best would be to make sure we do role plays every day and I think she's right. I t'll help me not be/feel so awkward when we're talking to people in real life.  lol

McFarlane, Thornton, Keller

Companion love on my birthday!  <3

This morning we went and hiked Pinnacle Mountain, which is kind of funny because it's just like a little hill.  It's about like Crimson Trail level hike.  But it was way fun. :)

Trying to give Hermana Thornton a piggy back ride so we can take a cute

picture.  But then she ended up choking me a little.  lol

Maybe this is better.  :)

Taking the tag picture.

Back: Van Orman, Waters, King, Keller, Thornton
front: McNall, Kerby, Minster

We got stuck in a rainstorm this week and by the time we got back in the car, we both looked like we had just gotten out of the shower!  lol!

Beautiful Fall colors in Little Rock, Arkansas!

Babes!  Wanna learn about our church?!?!  lol

I was reading in Mosiah 23, which is about the people of Alma after they are conquered by the Lamenites and before they escape to join the people of Mosiah in Zarahemla.  Amulon, a former priest of King Noah and former colleague to Alma is made king over Alma's captured people.  Verse 27 says, "But Alma went forth and stood among them[his people], and exhorted them that they should not be frightened, but that they should remember the Lord their God and he would deliver them."  God wants us to remember him and will bless us when we do so.  And this is true for EVERYONE!!!  I think it's so cool that God will always be waiting for us to come to Him and trust Him with our worries and our trials.  God will always deliver us when we remember Him.  I always want to be in a position in my life where God can deliver me from my trials.  By remembering God always, I can also make sure I am being the best missionary I can be.

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Hermana Keller


Hermana Bowen sent me these pictures.  First boba...
                 
What Halloween as a missionary looks like...

    

More birthday pictures...

 

More pictures from Pinnacle Mountain...