Week One With The Youngsters

Hey ya'll!

So, one week down.

YSA work is so weird! Like, we have stewardship of all of Spokane, which is a big difference from being in tiny Moran Prairie. It's good though. The ward members that I've met so far have been AWESOME, and there is a LOT of work to do. I love it though!

Under the freeway- "SKETCH!"
(Anyone know what this means? I need a missionary translator...)

The week started off crazy. P-day, we went under the freeway for an adventure... Super sketch...
On Tuesday, we dropped Elder G- off in Spokane Valley, which was SUPER SAD! I love that guy.

Saying goodbye to Elder G.

Right after that, we rushed to the temple to make it to M-'s endowment session with the M--s.
It was amazing! So flipping happy for her! (She has been called on a mission to Japan!)

M- and us at the Temple

Guys, the temple truly is the most amazing place on the planet. Even our tiny Spokane temple. ;)

After that, it was appointments, lessons, service and just flat out missionary life.

I love it!

At work.

At night.

Not a whole lot else to report... I have a bunch of pictures for ya'll though! :D (The photos in this post.)


This work is amazing! I love every second of it, and I thank God for the opportunity to be here.
God is good! And so is working for him.

Love ya'll!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas.

TOO BAD!

No snow. It sucks.

Oh well. Mission life is good. We just had transfers, and no one in my "group" of Elders is leaving (all of us who like to get together on P-Day and play board games, play guitar/ukulele, and swap mission stories). So I'm going another round here!

The most exciting part of this last week was the ward Christmas party. Me and my group of Elders got together and prepared a special musical number to perform, and got it set up with the Sister in charge of the whole thing. So, as the evening was winding down, we went up and performed "Let It Go" from Frozen. I played a Taylor guitar a member in the ward let me borrow for the occasion, and we all sang. We invited everyone to sing with us on the chorus, and it was a total success! Everyone still is telling us how awesome that was, and apparently it's all over youtube and Facebook now. :/

Oh well. Fun times!

Also, I should note that we worked our butts off, and now have our first real investigator in a while! His name is G--, and we've been doing a TON of service for him recently. Good times, good times. Anyway, I love and miss you all, and I couldn't find my camera, so no pictures today. Next week I'll send twice as many though.

Love ya!
-Elder Keppner

Road Trips Are for the Elders...

Hallo peeps!

It's been great to hear from you all, and I really appreciate everybody's support back home!

To be perfectly honest, the mission ROCKS! This week wasn't super exciting, but man, God is good! The work moves forward, and MAN does it move fast! Priest River is a GOLDEN area, and I love serving here! I've met so many amazing people here, and I learn so much from them each and every day. The Spirit seems to guide every step, and helps me change, and change again, making me more and more like the man I need to be. The problem is, the more I grow, the more I realize who small I really am. I think having a companion to work with, and lots of time to pray and ponder has really helped me notice just how many flaws I have. And then I think back on who I was back home, and MAN. I was a PUNK! It's sometimes hard not to look back and be ashamed of who I used to be. So many stupid mistakes! So much wasted potential! Man, when I come back, there's a lot of stuff I need to fix.

But you know what, I'll have plenty of time to work on that when I get home. For now, I've got a lot of learning to do. 

Man! People keep telling us that we're here to teach, and I guess we are. But the more I teach, the more I learn, and the more I want to be better. I love this work more than anything I have ever done before, and I'm never happier than when I serve the Lord. This work is truly the Lord's, and I will give this mission thing everything I have in me. THIS IS MY MISSION. THIS IS THE LORD'S MISSION. And I will do my best to go on, and be better every day!

A sunset shot

Anyway, before I sign off, I just wanted to share our last P-day experience:

It started off great! We got up early, and started making our way to the Spokane Temple. The problem was, on our way there, we got lost in downtown Spokane. We finally made it in time for our Temple session, but just barely.

After an awesome session, we headed out to email, and then went and had Lunch with a member Elder Wa--- knows in Spokane. After that, the plan was to head back to Priest River and play some board games or something. What ended up happening was we ended up on the wrong highway, and were heading to Seattle. We finally figured out what was going on when I grabbed the map after driving for an hour without recognizing our surroundings, and found that we were going in the OPPOSITE direction we were supposed to be heading. I yelled something along the lines of "HOLY FETCH! We're freaking heading to SEATTLE!"

Elder W--- slammed on the breaks, all of us Elders flew forward, and we started back down the highway. After getting onto the right highway, we got stuck in road construction traffic for HOURS, and then FINALLY, made it back at about 7:00pm. An hour after P-day should have been over. Yeah, so that was our P-day roadtrip. :/

I love and miss you all, and I'm so happy to be here! Keep it up!

-Elder Keppner

Into the Waters of Baptism, and Beyond

C--- is getting dunked!!! :D

Hey ya'll!

This week was CRAZY! But, it was truly amazing. We have been working with C--- for a while now, and this past Saturday, he was baptized!

Me and Elder H--- had to do ALL of the preparations for the baptism because our ward mission leader is out of town, so, we're pretty well tuckerd out. But, it all worked out beautifully, and it was an AMAZING baptism! The Spirit was truly there, and everyone present could feel it. After he was baptized, he shared his testimony of the truthfulness of this Gospel, and of his conversion story. I swear, there wasn't a dry eye in the room. Except mine. I'm to manly to cry. Yeah. *cough*

The work is EXPLODING here in St. Maries, and we now have the highest Baptism rate in the Zone. We are working hard to find more people to teach, because all of our investigators are getting baptized! One of our big focuses now however, is helping to expand our Youth program, so we're trying to put special emphases on the teens here in St. Maries. We're also working a lot with C---, and we are doing our best to answer all of his awesome questions.

Actually, for P-Day, we're heading up to his "Survival Camp", and he's going to teach us how to do Blacksmith-work, Leather-working, and a lot of really awesome stuff like that!

A new game: "DESOLATION: Wars and Rumors of Wars"

Anyway, we also had a lot of fun last week! I got permission to make board games on P-Day, as long as I get the idea for the game approved by the Zone Leaders first, I can make them! I've made two thus far, and even the AP's LOVE the games! P-day is pretty darn cool when you have four missionaries gathered around playing "Mission of Zion" or the new "Desolation: Wars and Rumors of Wars", and they are both quite popular throughout the Washington Spokane mission.

Even the mission President likes my Mission of Zion Game, and there are rumors that it may be used in Zone training sessions in the future... But hey, if my talent can be used to help the missionary work, than I couldn't ask for anything better. :D

For Easter Sunday, we had an awesome church service! We usually have about 60 people in church on Sunday, but yesterday, we had 110 (we have the exact amount because we talked to the ward clerk... ;) )!
After Church, we went over the the O---'s home for dinner. The O---'s are an AWESOME old couple, and they call us missionaries their "sons". Also, there is a part member family living with them, who we have been teaching a lot recently. Sister W--- is the mom. She hasn't been to church since she was a teenager and she just divorced her husband. 

It was a big mess, and we missionaries did the best that we could to help out. She has a 15 year old daughter, C---, who has not been baptized, and has never been inside an LDS church.

So, at the O---'s home, we had quite the party! In addition to the O---'s, us missionaries, and the W---'s, C---'s friend L--- was there too. We had a HUGE feast with a full turkey and everything else you could think of, and then we played piano, laughed, joked, and sang together for hours! After that, we missionaries taught a lesson about Jesus Christ and his teachings, said goodnight, and headed home.

A St. Marie's sunset

I can't tell you all how much I love this work. I'm a missionary, a representative of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and I am so happy to be a part of this wonderful work. 

I KNOW that the Lord lives. I know that Jesus Christ took upon himself all of the pains and sins of the world. I know that this Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is God's Kingdom here upon the Earth.

I love my Savior, and I love all of you.

Smell ya later,
-Elder Keppner

Leaving the MTC

Am I really leaving on Monday? Have I really been here that long? I feel like I've only been here a couple of days, and yet, I feel like I've been here my whole life. I've REALLY come to life here, and I LOVE the work. 

There are a lot of Elders with bad attitudes, and many MANY Elders who have no interest in following mission rules. We've seen Elders and Sisters sent home, and a lot of companionships fall apart. But not my district. Me, Elder F____, Elder H____, and all of our wonderful Sisters are so close, and we really do love each other. These Elders are my brothers, and we all trust, rely, and work together.

Speaking of working together, we have a two REAL investigators; Peter and Alexander. Peter is a middle aged man who grew up in New Zealand, and he came to America to find work, and to get married. He is very down to earth, but he has very little education since He became interested in the "Mormons" because of a close friend he has who is Mormon, so he decided he wanted to learn more about the Church, so he took up a job at the MTC to kill two birds with one stone. He is quite open to the Church, and he really likes what our message could mean for his future family.

Alexander on the other hand, is a older, well educated man, and he is also the Ambassador to a country in Africa (I don't remember which one :P), and he was recommended to the MTC by Church headquarters to learn more about what our Church believes. The problem is, he sees Jesus Christ as a great teacher on how to live a fulfilling life, but he doesn't believe that Christ made the atonement, and he has no interest in learning about anything not pertaining to this life.

We taught him last night, and we made some progress, but he is very familiar with how most Christian churches function, and so whenever we start talking about anything other than this life, he stops listening and tells us "I already know that you believe that stuff, and I really don't care about it".

But we had a good lesson last night, and we had a good discussion in our residence afterwards.

Today, we attended the temple endowment session at 7:00am, and we gained some spiritual insights into how we can help our investigators, as well as to encourage us.

This is our last P-day before we leave, so we're trying to take advantage of it (this involves singing, running, working out, gym time, snowman building, and taking pictures which we can't send until we leave the MTC).

Oh! It's been snowing the last couple of days! I can't believe how beautiful it is! The clouds come and sit on top of the mountains and it just snows and snows and snows. I love it!!! The Cafeteria food is great, and there is PLENTY of it. And because I've been working out with my companions, I've been putting on a lot of muscle weight. It's awesome! My spine doesn't stick out anymore, and I don't get tired... Like, EVER... We have a pull up bar right outside our residence door too, which means I get to do it every day. :)

So, as far as letters go, those "dear elder" letters that you sent me made it though! And it was awesome to get them! But you all should go ahead and send my letters to my actual mission since I'll be going to Spokane on Monday. I only get to check my Email on Pday, but I get to read any letters I get as soon as I get them, so those are awesome too!

I miss you all! and I was so glad to hear what's been going on at home!

Please give everyone my mission address! I want to hear from everyone!

{Here's his mission home address!!!}WASHINGTON SPOKANE MISSION820 S Pines Rd. #101Spokane Valley, WA 99206-5420

Love you all, and I'll write you all an Email again next week!

-Elder Keppner