Brave New Year

Yeah, I'm skinny again. (Awkward selfie #296)
{He was sick all last week, so he lost a little weight.}

Hello hello!

Happy New Year, ya'll!

Things here in the good ol' Hayden 2nd are just cruisin' along. We got two feet of snow last night, but it's been raining since this morning, so, we'll see how long it lasts. If it drops below freezing, we're all in for a CRAPPY time on the roads. But, me and Elder S-- walk everywhere, so I guess we aren't affected by it much.

Let's see, what else interesting happened... Errrr. Uh, well, NEW FETCHING YEARS!

In our mission, we are allowed to watch one movie a year, on New Years Eve, from a list provided by President Mullen. This year, me and my peeps chose to watch How To Train Your Dragon with the M-- family, and we ate a TON of Papa Murphy's pizza to go with it. It was awesome! I love that family a bunch, and I'm so glad we got to chill with them.

Prepped for adventure! (Awkward selfie #297)

Also this last week, THE J-- FAMILY CAME TO SEE ME!!! Oh my heck, it was awesome to see them again! We all met up at Burger King, had a good chat, and played a bit O' geetar. AND, I may or may not have gotten a new and AWESOME guitar! Ah! So much awesome!

Now, I'm gonna take a chill, and finish off by saying: This day last year, I was in the MTC. At this moment last year.... I was probably on the toilet due to the MTC food that caused most of us to live on that ivory throne for two weeks.

Sorry, I'm hyper, tired, and kinda crude right now. I love you all though, and I'm thinkin' of you! 

Keep your cool, and know that this Church is true, the Book is Blue, and Jesus is a Mormon.

Love you all!
-Elder Keppner

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

To snow, or not to snow?

Taking a five minute break from walking all day...

Dear friends, if you would like to send our Elder Keppner a card or note for Christmas, I KNOW he'd love it! All mail for him should go to the following address:

Elder Brennan Keppner

820 South Pines Road Suite 101 

Spokane Valley, WA 99206

I would love it if you would join me in helping our Elder to have a Happy Christmas this year-- his FIRST, and possibly only one out in the mission field!

Love, Mama Rachel

.......................................................................................

Ugh. SNOW, STICK AROUND!!!

Hey ya'll! Things are going well here in the good ol' WaSpo. We've been working hard as usual, and doing our best to deal with how bipolar our weather is being. One day it's snowing, the next it's raining, and the next it's bright, sunny, and 10 degrees. 

So, when there isn't snow in the ground we can bike, which makes the work go WAY faster, and when there IS snow on the ground, we have to walk. We walk on average ten miles a day, and while it's not that far, it's a HUGE time hog. Oh well. Elder S-- cheers me up by telling me that the more we walk, the hotter our wives get, so, we press on. ;P

The ward here is bending over backwards to help us find peeps to teach. But, people in the city are so gosh darn hard hearted. I miss the country. Oh well, I'll continue to see what I can do in the city.

Oh! So this week we did our first night of caroling! It went SUPER well, and it was super fun! We are also getting ready to perform in our ward Christmas party, AND I'll be playing guitar in Hayden 4th ward's Sacrament Meeting Christmas musical number (yes, guitar was approved in Church). 

That's pretty much my week. I had some pictures for you guys though!

Elder Keppner Selfie

How we prepare to bike down the hill at 50 miles an hour.
(Tryin' to make you proud dad! ;) )

Love and miss you!
-Elder Brennan Keppner

Here and GONE!!!?

My companion, Elder G--

Hey ya'll!

CRAZY stuff going on here! My companion Elder G-- has been the BEST! We work so dang hard, and the only thing he complains about is the cold (it's 19 degrees). But now, as my good friend Elder M-- says: "Plot Twist!!!" Elder G-- got his Visa to Taiwan! So, we're dropping him off tonight at a mission office couple's home to stay the night so he can catch his early morning flight. So crazy! I LOVE this kid, and I'm really gonna miss him. I hope I was able to teach him what he needs to know. :'(

Goodbye to Elder G--, my son. He will take my posterity to all the world! :D

So, I'll be getting a new companion soon, and so the work will go on.

As far as the area goes, it is DANG COLD! I LOVE it! But everyone else here doesn't seem to like it so much. Oh well. Riding a bike in it is COLD to start with, but when you ride uphill for a few minutes, you're all warmed up. So, I tend to bike without a jacket.

The members here are GREAT! We get SO many referrals, and the members are good at following up too! The ward loves us, which is AWESOME because we love them too!

My only hope now is that my new companion will be as hard working and obedient.

I'm running low on time, but I wanted you all to know that I'm doing GREAT! I love the work, and I love being here.

We've started putting bananas in the hands of anyone caught sleeping. It is a tradition never to be forgotten. ;D

Love and miss you all!
-Elder Keppner

WINTER IS FINALLY HERE!!!

My comp and one of our inmates. :D
(He still has not told us which one of these Elders is his companion!)

Holy crap, it SNOWED last night! It melted as soon as the sun came up, but it SNOWED! Winter is finally here, and I am SO ready for this!

As far as the work goes, it's AWESOME! We talk to an insane amount of people every day, and it's getting crazy! We came into the area with zero investigators and no up to date records, and that was CRAPPY. The entire first week was spent trying to find ANYONE to teach. And now, two weeks and a lot of work hours later, we are back on track! We have investigators, less active members, and active members to teach in abundance now, and it's awesome!

We have to be smart with our planning though or we get WAY behind. We literally spend all day rushing from appointment to appointment in a desperate race against time. 

...Man, that sounds a lot more epic on paper than it feels in real life.

"Baptists at Our Barbeque", anyone...?
(That movie is one of our family's favorites!)

Anyway, the work is on the move! Biking is awesome too! We actually get to talk to people as we see them on the street, and we are really trying to work on talking to everyone. And there are some real blessings coming from it!

Apartment life is good too. We plan our day, talk to each other about the miracles of the day, report our numbers, and then get down to the serious business of playing home-made board games. My games have become SUPER popular, and it's super weird when you talk to a missionary at P-Day that you've never met, and they ask you if you are THE Elder Keppner that makes the board games.
SO weird.

Also, my companion is SO FETCHING-- I don't even know where to start, AWESOME! He listens, he teaches, his testimony is strong, he loves to work, and things couldn't be better! We're rockin' the dream team here in Hayden, and the spiritual high we're getting off of it is addicting. Is it bad to be addicted to the Spirit? *Shrug*

I love and miss you all, and have an awesome fetching day! :D
-Elder Brennan Keppner