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.