Aborto.

She's going on a mission!  :)

Samantha has 11 weeks before she leaves on her mission and I am so excited for her!!

This area is great. They stopped doing English classes here a couple of transfers ago because no one was coming but Hermana Petty and I decided to follow the lead of the Little Rock Hermanas and put up posters in all the Hispanic stores and get English class going again.  That idea was from Hermana Quigley and it's working!  We have put up a bunch of posters and this week we had 9 people to our English class!  It's so awesome!  We will see if they are interested in learned about the gospel as we teach them English.

I really admire Hermana Petty's desire to always be better and improve our relationship, our Spanish, our teaching skills, etc.  Her Spanish is really great.  She really loves the people here in Memphis and wants to help them hear the gospel.  Something really great about her is her desire to have "celestial fatigue" every night.  She wants to work so hard every day and it's awesome!

Love my companion, Hermana Petty!  

We had the most awesome lesson with our investigator Miguela this week!  We were nervous when we went over because of all the stuff she was saying last week about not wanting to get baptized right now because of her daughter and not wanting to get baptized without her and their situation.  So we went in ready to do everything we possibly could to help her understand that nothing matters except her own testimony that the church is true.  We did the baptismal interview with her and she did so good.  She's really impressed me lately with how much she understands.  We asked if she's had an abortion and she said yes and started talking about it and we were panicking and not understanding what she was telling us about it.  But it turns out the word aborto in Spanish means both abortion and miscarriage in English but we didn't know that and felt bad because we accidentally asked her if she's had a miscarriage instead of asking her if she's had an abortion.  Now its kind of funny because we didn't know what to do and we were panicking for a minute.  But its all ok now.  At the end, we started talking about baptism and she was saying some of the same stuff as last week.  We were pretty sad because we thought we were going to have to totally drop her date for July 15 and reset a new one that's even further away.  Then out of nowhere she said that her daughter and her husband (who is not a member and living in Mexico) and their fellowshippers, the Benitez, were all saying that she should be baptized now.  They were saying why wait if she knows it's true and she wants to be baptized and she's ready and they need the blessings now.  So we are for sure having a baptism on July 15!!!  I am so excited for her!  She is so ready!

Just a beautiful sunset one night.

This week I studied Teaching by the Spirit and the Power and Authority of your Calling in the first chapter of Preach My Gospel.  I really liked the list it gave for how to have the spirit with me: 

• pray for the Spirit
• purify my heart
• keep the commandments
• diligently treasure up God's word
• teach for understanding
• exercise faith.

I noticed that the second and third things have to do with exact obedience.  I also found a scripture that I really love, Heleman 3:35. 

Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.

I really love the last part of this scripture.  I know that when I am exactly obedient and doing my very best to be the 4th missionary, I am yielding my heart to God.  I know the blessings that come from that are joy and consolation as well as the spirit with me when I teach. And when I have the spirit, I will have a spiritual power that is evidence that the authority I have as a missionary is real. 

Love you all!

Hermana Keller

For some reason I always read, "America Return to Cheese" every time,
instead of, "America Return to Christ.  jajajaja

Memphis Spanish District
Elders Smalley, Merrill, Hermanas Keller, Petty, Elders Anaya, Sotomarino

I had 4 different little girls play with my hair this week.  LOL!

Temple Lesson.

My family is doing so great.  I've noticed on my mission how happy my family seems all the time.  We are closer than ever as a family, even though we're further than ever because I am gone.  I know that that's a blessing that has come from my mission.  I am genuinely happy about the things that are going well in my family's life. And selfishly, I am so excited to receive even more blessings that will come when Samantha leaves on her mission in September haha.  I'm a little disappointed that she is called English speaking and not learning Spanish, but I know that she will love her mission so much when she gets there.  And I'm so excited for that for her! I love being an hermana, but I know that really it's all about the people. And as long as I get to serve, that's what makes me happy to be a missionary.

I use these every time I teach the plan of salvation!  
They are awesome!

Since the beginning of my mission, my dream for serving in Memphis was to take an investigator to the temple and have a lesson with them outside the temple.  We got to do that this week!  We took Miguela and went with a member, Hermana Tudon.  It was so awesome!  We taught he plan of salvation again and when we got to the Spirit World, we were able to relate it to the temple and explain why we need them.  We talked about how she needs to do all that she can in this life and that's why we want her to get baptized and also help her to be able to go to the temple as soon as possible.  We talked a little bit about her date too and Hermana Tudon bore testimony about not putting it off and showing Christ right now that we want to follow him.  It was so awesome!  Also this week in branch council, the branch president told us that he doesn't want us to talk about baptism with people as much, but to talk about repentance because so many missionaries have pressured heir investigators into baptism and then those recent converts go inactive right after baptism. That made me really sad that that has been happening and I don't want it to happen to anyone I baptize.  It also made me sad that I don't think the branch president wants more baptisms because of what has happened and I think we need to build our relationship with him more.  Our plan this transfer is to work hard with the members and build relationships with them because I think we have all gotten a little lazy with that since we don't have to count member present lessons anymore.  But we are hoping to change that for us this transfer!

Hermana Petty, Hermana Tudon, Miguela, me.

Hermana Petty is obsessed with rainbows.  LOL!

I really like Hermana Petty and I'm happy to be with her again this transfer!  I think it's awesome that we can keep building the area and learning from each other and continue the good things we've been doing, rather than start all over.  Hermana Petty teaches me a lot every day about what it means to have faith, fire, and fun. :)

Wow!  We saw the craziest thing yesterday.  We were in an apartment complex and there were police by one apartment and a fire truck was coming in so we were wondering what had happened.  Then we ended up talking to 3 guys on the sidewalk because they asked what religion we are from.  They ended up mentioning that they had called the cops on their roommate because he drinks and he was trying to fight them.  We went on our way doing missionary work and about 10 minutes later, we saw a guy jumping on a car and it looked like he was trying to kick in the back windshield.  Then the policeman grabbed his leg and pulled him off the car and then tackled him in one swift move.  Then they got him and put him in the police car.  We were knocking on some more doors because we have a lot of potentials in that complex.  About 5 minutes after that, we walked by again and he was trying to kick out the window of the police car with his feet!  The police were talking to him and trying to help him and there were so many people outside watching.  Then we left because none of our investigators were home.  We have also seen a couple of bad car wrecks this week and I have just been feeling grateful that Heavenly Father is watching out for us, that he is protecting his missionaries because I think for a few of those crashes, if we had been even 5 minutes earlier, we could've been a part of those wrecks. We are so blessed!

I really loved Zone Conference and especially the opportunity that we had to study charity.  It really stuck out to me that charity, like faith, leads to action.  We can't have charity if we are just sitting around in our apartments all day.  We have to do something!  We have to act! We need to obey Gods commandments, serve others the best that we possibly can, and help them receive the restored gospel!  Then the blessing that comes from that is the ability to feel a part of God's love for other people, and to have charity. I think that is so cool and I want to be the kind of missionary that acts.  I want to do everything I can to receive that blessing!

Last District photos until transfers.

Love you all!

Hermana Keller

I got this two weeks ago at district meeting for winning the doctrinal points game. 
It melted in the car and then I froze it because I am my mothers daughter.  
And then we wanted to give elder Spencer something for his birthday, so we gave him this. 
Even though it froze in kind of a weird shape.  lol

The Vicchioni's in the branch own a restaurant in Bartlett called Little Italy. 
We went on Wednesday and also today and it is sooooo good. She is from Honduras and he is from Italy. 
I learned how to say: gratzi mille! Idk how to spell that but it means thanks so much in Italian.

If he becomes an apostle I am framing and hanging this in the living room.  jaja

Hermanas Petty, Olson, me at Zone Conference.

Fort Worth, Texas!!!

Samantha got her mission call on Thursday!!!!!!  She is going to the Texas Fort Worth Mission, English speaking and leaving September 13.  I am so happy for her and I am so excited for her to be able to be a missionary and for her to preach the gospel and see the changes that people make and the blessings that come from that.

This area is on fire.  A couple weeks ago, we were really lacking in investigators but we have tons now!  And there are so many of them that I am excited to see them be baptized one day!  I really think they all have a lot of potential.  When we were doing a lot of finding, I was worried because I didn't want to be finding we would be dropping a week later.  But I wanted to find solid investigators that would get baptized!  I really feel like we did that.

Hermana Petty is great!  This week we set the second date of her mission.  She has said that they had been inviting people, but just that no one had accepted.  While we were in the lesson with Yoli (our date), and it was time to set the date, I decided that I wanted her to be able to have that opportunity of actually inviting to baptism and setting the date.  But then there was a minute of an awkward pause before it happened.  Which is kind of funny now.  But it kind of felt like she didn't quite know what to do.  And because of that experience, I'm not sure how often people were being invited to baptism before here in Memphis.  But Hermana Petty set a date with Yoli and it turned out really good.  We tried to set the date for July 22 because she and her boyfriend aren't married yet but then the boyfriend asked if it could be a little later than that because she's pregnant and due in 3 weeks.  So that was a little awkward but funny.  So we ended up setting the date for August 12 which is really far away, but I think it'll happen.

On Tuesday, we had a lesson with Miguela (our first date) and we needed to reset her date.  Her daughter and son in law are the elders' investigators and she hasn't been wanting to set a date because of the situation they're in and she doesn't want to get baptized without them.  But Hermana Petty and I had prayed about it and felt good about July 15 as a date for her.  It would give them enough time to figure out some things as far as their situation goes as well as time to reteach her all of the lessons in the meantime.  We invited her and she still didn't want to commit.  :(  She wants to be baptized but didn't want to commit to a date.  So we testified of the blessings of baptism and promised her those blessings and suggested that we pray about it with her.  She agreed to that.  I told her I could say the prayer and that she didn't have to say anything except for Amen at the end (because she usually does recitations while we are praying) because I wanted her to really listen to the prayer.  We prayed and the spirit was so strong!  We asked Heavenly Father to help us know if July 15 would be a good day for Miguela to be baptized.  After we finished the prayer, we asked her how she felt.  She said she felt very good!  We are so excited for her baptism and she is too!  The spirit was so strong in that lesson and I know it's the right thing for her.  As we were finishing up the lesson, she even said she would do it with or without her daughter and son in law.

This week I studied the beginning part of How do I Improve my Teaching Skills in Preach My Gospel.  I noticed that it says to rely on the spirit so many times in just a couple of paragraphs!  I also came away with 5 things I need to do to make sure that I am a good teacher. 

1. Prepare 
2. Be worthy of the Spirit 
3. Be real 
4. Testify
5. Follow promptings. 

I know that if I do those things and if I really rely on the spirit then I will teach with power!

Love you all!

Hermana Keller

Mini-golf and disc-golf for Elder Spencer's birthday and last P-day.

Viri's daughter, Nicole

Elder Spencer's "wake".

Elders Pickering, Anaya, Hermanas Petty, Keller, Elders Merrill, Spencer.

Blinding sunset.

Blinding sunset!

I told you last week that our area book has been pretty empty so we've been doing a lot of finding.  While on exchanges and found 4 new investigators as well as 3 more from earlier in the week!  I know that as we continue to work hard, that Heavenly Father will bless us.  Also yesterday we were teaching a former investigator and towards the end of the lesson, I brought up baptism.  I was really nervous because I didn't know how she would respond but I told her that we just wanted to let her know that we are there to help her come unto Christ and that we know one of the ways she can do that is baptism and we just want to let her know that that is where we see things going.  She responded by saying that baptism wasn't part of her plans right now... that she loves the missionaries and our message, but baptism isn't what she's thinking about right now.  It was sad to hear that, but I know it is good for us to know where she is at.  And she can know what we are thinking as well.  I know that that is one of the many purposes of baptismal invitations and I am so grateful for them.

Hermana Petty is such a good companion.  She loves the people a lot and wants to give them every opportunity possible to accept the gospel and us.  We are working on being better at exercising in the mornings.  Hermana Petty definitely works hard! Hispanics here are really into fruit waters. They blend up fruit and put it in their water. I don't really like any of it... but I drink it anyway.  :)

Our double schedule for exchanges.

We have exchanges every transfer.  I found out we would only be doing a blitz with the STLs for a couple of days this time instead of an actual exchange and that made me a little disappointed.  Especially because we've been having a hard time with new investigators lately so it was really hard to make double plans.  But we did it!  We ended up spending a really big amount of time just finding and that turned out to be really awesome.  We also fasted during this exchange to be able to find the people Heavenly Father is preparing for us and we found a lot!  This week we ended up being able to have 7 new investigators and we found a bunch more potentials and I am so excited about that!

We taught Maria (one of Hermana Macfarlane's recent converts who got baptized last July and their family is inactive now) twice this week and I am so excited about that!  The first time was just random and it was amazing that she answered the door because mostly it's just Jose (her brother) that answers the door and we ask if his mom is home and he says no or that she's busy and we ask if he knows when we can come back and he say no and we say okay.  But this time she answered the door!  And I decided that the old way of trying to make an appointment is obviously not working so we need to teach them one at a time at the door. (There are three of them.)  So we talked to her about her Book of Mormon reading and she hasn't been doing it. :(  But then I showed her the big 5 and we did it with her and I thought it was cool. The Big 5 is something I made up with Hermana Macfarlane for the youth.  It's 5 steps that they can take to read their scriptures every day and it only takes about 5 minutes.  These are the steps:

     1. (About 5 seconds) create a spiritual environment

     2. (About 30 seconds) Say a prayer 

     3. (2-5 minutes) read 5 verses 

     4. (About 1 minute) Apply/think about what you've learned 

     5. (About 30 seconds) Say another prayer. 

I thought it was cool because Hermana Macfarlane made it up with me and then I ended up using it on her recent convert.  Then we set up an appointment with her for Thursday and I went with Hermana Thornton on exchanges and she was outside and we talked about how our purpose is to help her come unto Christ and how Hermana Macfarlane and Hermana Lewis helped her do that through baptism and confirmation and we're going to do that by helping her have eternal life/go to the temple.  Then we talked about scripture study/praying/coming to church every week and I really hope that happens.  I really would love it if they were reactivated!




The question I studied for my exchange goal this time was how can I help people learn how to repent because Moroni 8:25 says, "the first fruits of repentance is baptism."  I learned that besides teaching the steps of repentance, I can always testify of repentance and the Atonement and testify of its healing power.  Then I was studying commitments because when we invite people to do something, we are inviting them to repent and I read in Preach my Gospel, "Some of those you teach will lack the faith to keep commitments," and when I read that, I knew that this is a problem for a lot of the people we teach.  I think a lot of them just don't have the faith that keeping a certain commitment will help them and will bring them blessings so they don't do it because they have no motivation.  That makes me sad for them, but I know that I need to follow the Spirit to be able to help them.  I don't know why they lack the faith to keep a commitment or what their concerns are, but the Spirit does and that's why I need to rely on him.  That's why it's so important for me to be exactly obedient - so I can be as worthy as I possibly can to have the spirit with me.

President Wakolo asked us to send him a picture of us in front of the church we attend.

We decided to take pictures in front of as many churches we can so we can show you for real how crazy it is here in the south.  Two of them are across the street from each other and there are so many more that we haven't even gotten to yet!

Crystal Shrine Grotto

Some guy did these sculptures in a man made cave in the 1940s and they are all about Christ's life. The best part is that the whole thing is in the middle of some random cemetery.  It's just kind of weird.  lol

                             

I opened up the laundry room door 2 weeks ago to the ceiling kind of falling in. 
Turns out the apartment above us had a leak.  :O

Finally, for my Hump Day dinner last week we went to Wing Stop.

I love you all!

Hermana Keller