A Week of Service

Me and Elder S-- at lunch. :D

Hey ya'll!

This week was great! We busted some buns and got a lot done.

I just wanted to start off by saying that I've never been happier! This mission thing is so darn cool. To all ya'll getting ready to serve a mission get ready for the best time of your life!

This week, we taught a bunch of lessons, and got a lot done!

We were doin' some crazy awesome work with the M-- family in our ward (they ROCK by the way). We were doing a bunch of work on the house, which taught me a TON of useful skills for when I'm trying to fix up my own house.

Elder S-- workin'!

Anyway, we were tearing up carpet, foam and tackstrips, patching up holes and then putting in new carpet, painting, and cleanin' up the mess we made.

Taking a break.

It was super fun to help, and we had a blast working alongside this awesome family!

Doin' studies with L--! :D

It was hard work, but the final product looks great!

We also hauled a bunch of logs up a vertical hill for a part member less active family, which was SUPER hard, but they fed us steaks afterwards which we were A-Okay with.

Man, thinking back on it, it felt like we were in service clothes more then proc.

Ah. Here's my challenge to ya'll: Find a service project. Working to help out is the best feeling in the world!

Not a whole lot else to report... But! I love you all, and I'm so glad to be a missionary!
Love,
-Keppy

Improvement and Progression!

Serious selfie...

Heck yeah!

It's a new week folks, and there is a lot going on here in the not-so-frozen-north. For one, it's not frozen. Yup. This time last year it was blizzarding, -15 degrees and cloudy. Now, it's sunny with a high of 55. It's so fetching hot! I'm out and about in rolled up sleeves and tryin' to stay cool while walking around. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to deal with Arizona heat again. :P

Aside from that, the work has been great! We're able to be up and about and people have become a little less reclusive. Now, whether that means they want to talk to us is a different deal altogether. People have been pretty responsive though, which we're A-OK with.

We've been working a lot with our investigator B--, and she's really been making some great changes in her life. She came to church for the first time yesterday, and it was super awesome!

Now, yesterday was Stake Conference, and good grief was it interesting. It started fine; Elder S-- and I were at the Honeysuckle building with B--, watching the Conference on the big screen. About 45 minutes in, BOOM: the internet died.

There was a five minute pause, and then our Bishop went up to try and fix it. Fifteen minutes later, it came back up, and we watched the next five minutes of it in peace. Then, BOOM, it crashed again. Once again, Bishop went up to fix it and called someone over at the Stake Center, but after ten more minutes of trying to fix it, he announced over the pulpit that the server at the Stake Center had crashed, and that it wouldn't be possible to fix by the end of Stake Conference. So, a new solution was presented: Bishop had a guy at the Stake Center call him, and put the phone next to a speaker at the Stake Center, and then bishop plugged his phone into his computer, which was hooked up to the church speakers.

We heard about every other word.

Super interesting stuff that. :P

Also, getting back to B--, She's quitting smoking next week! We're super pumped, and we're praying like crazy that she will be able to make it. Keep a prayer out for her!

Well, the rest is the same old same old.

Teaching, finding, tracting, praying, laughing, crying and being a missionary.

I should also mention that Elder S-- has been an amazing help at this point in my life. It's amazing all of the different things I've learned from each companion.

Guys, this mission has been the best thing that's ever happened to me. I am not the same scared little kid that stepped onto the plane in the Phoenix airport more than a year ago.

God is real, folks. He really cares about us, and no matter how many times we screw up, and no matter far we fall, He'll pick us up and save us from ourselves. He has changed my life, and I've seen Him change hundreds of lives around me.

To anyone who doesn't know if they want to serve a mission, all I want to ask is: Are you happy with where you are? The mission will change you. It will make you the best YOU you can be. You will grow so much. It will hurt. Sometimes you'll break down and just scream because of how hard it is and how much it hurts, but no matter what, if you keep on keeping on, you'll find a weird energy helping you on, and guiding you.

That energy is God.

Guess what, no matter what you believe or don't believe, God still is there, and he loves you. Deal with it.

Peace out guys,
I love you.
-Keppy

Another Week

Well, not too much happened this week. I conducted my first exchange, which was quite interesting, and I'm still acclimating to being District Leader, but I've got some great Zone Leaders who have helped a lot with all of the mission politics crap that's been going on.

But aside from that, mission work goes on! We've been working with our investigators, and we're trying to focus on bringing all of them to Church.

Church is a great place to feel the Spirit and get support from our fellow sinners, so it's a great place to bring all comers!

We do a LOT of walking by the way. It's just how you roll here in Hayden 2nd, and I have found a real love of walking, biking, and running. I'll be doing a lot more of it when I get home foe show.

Uhhhh. I'm out of stuff to say again, so, yup! I love you all, and if you have any questions for me, I'll respond to them next week.

Yup! That's it!

I love the Lord, I love this work, and I love all of you!

Talk to ya soon!
-Keppy

Lots of Craziness!

E.K. serving in the world renown city of Hayden Idaho!

Hey everyone!

Nothing too crazy this week. Me and Elder S-- have made it a goal to teach ten lessons a day, and it's been going great so far! We've really been having a blast, and the work has been exploding! The Super Bowl has made a bunch of folks up here grouchy though, so, that's made things interesting with people driving by and shouting profanities at us missionaries every day. It's all good though! The Lord is awesome, and he helps us out.

 Goodbye to Teancum and Friends. The band has finally broken up. We finished our album though! :D

I'm out of time, but I thought I'd include a bit of a Q&A things that my mom asked me this week. If anyone else has questions they want answered in my next email, just send me the questions via email, and I'll answer them. :)

Love you all!
-Keppy

Q&A:

#1- Where is Elder S-- from?
 Elder S-- is from Palmer Alaska. He's been there pretty much his entire life, and he can take the cold like a boss.

#2- How often do you eat out with other missionaries?
 I eat out with other missionaries usually 1-2 times a week, although later in the month that dies down due to funds getting short. I'm trying to figure out how to get the social and District unity aspects, and yet not get unhealthy, so, it's a weird balance. Working on it!

#3- Do you cook some of your own meals? What do you cook?
I cook pretty much all of my own meals. I'm on what is now known as the Cheap n' Healthy Mission Diet. I make a banana and honey smoothie every morning as my breakfast. For lunch, I will either make eggs in one form or another or a ham sandwich. Dinner is usually with members, and if not, I eat leftovers. When I first came out, I wasn't the best with eating right, but I didn't have as much energy as I wanted, so I experimented until I have the diet I do today. :)

#4- What are your duties as a District Leader?
As District Leader, my duties are to take nightly accountings from all of the missionaries in my District, take all of their weekly numbers Sunday Night, give District Trainings once a week, accept or deny requests from the missionaries in my District to go to other missionaries areas within my District, and go on Exchanges for twenty four hours at a time to help the missionaries in my District with aspects of the work they may be struggling with, or see what things they are doing well.

#5- Are you teaching someone in this area? What are your investigators' names?
Yes, me and Elder S-- are teaching a lot of somebodies. We currently have seven investigators, and we are working consistently with all of them. We also work with Less Active members pretty heavily, and we try to help them get back to church and live the commandments. Our investigators names are B--, R--, A--, M--, C--, H--, and G--.

#6- What does your typical day look like?
Well, to lay out a typical day would take a day to write, so I'm going to refer you to the White Handbook daily schedule. https://www.lds.org/bc/content/ldsorg/topics/missionary/MissionaryHandbook2006Navigate.pdf?lang=eng That's what our day looks like, and we follow it religiously. (lol, get it, religiously? lol Yeah...)

#7-  Has anyone ever been mean to you as missionaries? How do you respond when someone is not nice to you?
Yes. I've had everything from guns, swearing, dogs, chainsaws and drive by fruit throwing. Recently we've been getting a lot of people yelling at us as they drive by. So, in response, I've started shouting back at the top of my lounges "Jesus loves you too!". It gets all my energy and anger out, and I'm still fulfilling my purpose. As far as things like anti, my new strategy is to laugh, and say "Man, thanks for your time, but we got things to do. Have a good one kay?" It's not worth talking to people who come up to you to anti them. They are there for a fight, so you just don't play there game. Enders Game style.

#8- What is the weirdest experience you have had in the missionfield?
The weirdest thing... Probably being made District Leader to be honest.

But for more interesting stories, I'd have to say that the weirdest thing was getting asked to Homecoming by some girls in Chewelah. Me and Elder F-- were in the parking lot next to the High School eating our dinner, when a couple of girls parked next to us. It was a nice night, and we had our windows down, so they rolled their windows down and called out to us, asking if we had dates to Homecoming (which was apparently that night). We laughed and said no. They mentioned that they didn't have dates either, so it was perfect. We then told them that we were missionaries, and before we said much more, they looked sheepish and drove off. So, yeah. Weird, and kinda sad. It's the tag man. Don't know what it is about it. ;P

What were they thinking?!?

Hey everyone,

Transfer calls were last night, and the news isn't good. I'm staying (good), Elder S-- is staying (good), but Elder M--, our District Leader is leaving (BAD)! We love that kid! He's one of the coolest guys I've ever met, and he is a key member of Teancum and Friends. Aghrrrr!

On top of all of that, they made ME District Leader in his place. What were they thinking? I guess God's will be done, but MAN this is gonna be hard.

I don't trust myself with authority. I grew up as a bossy and annoying kid, and that is NOT what I want now. Elder M-- was an amazing District Leader, and now, me, a total noob who happens to be a recovering power addict is supposed to take care of this District. 

Sometimes, I really think God has a sense of humor. :P

I AM happy to be here another transfer though. I love this area, and the amazing people in it. There is a TON of work to do, and I am excited to get to be here for it! AND I get to work with Elder S-- for another Transfer? Heck yeah!!! Me and Elder S-- are both stoked for this next transfer! We can feel a bunch of baptisms coming, so maybe I'll report that later on. We have been getting a good number of new investigators each week, and it's great to work with all of these amazing people.

We're weird ya'll. Just in case you were wondering. ;P

As far as the everyday work here goes, it's never been better! Me and Elder S-- work out butts off, and the Lord has been blessing us with some wonderful miracles. In addition, obedience has been a big thing that me and Elder S-- have been focusing on, and once again, more obedience, more blessings! It's sick!

I've never been outright disobedient, but I didn't always look for ways to be even MORE obedient. Man, I can't tell you how good the Lord is to those who are obedient. He rocks!

Oh, and in other news, Elder F-- (From Chewelah) is taking Elder M--'s place! Elder F-- and I will be chilling in the same apartment, and boy is this going to be a hoot.

I'm surrounded by good people here, so I guess the Lord's setting this up to be a positive experience. But man, it certainly wasn't my plan to have any kind of leadership. I've found WAY more joy in just focusing on improving myself and helping my companion out than I ever did in leadership positions back home. I think I've learned that power is like fire, and I am a pyro. So, the Lord made sure the fire department (all of these awesome Elders in my District) was here before he handed me the matches.

If you guys could pray for me, that would be great.

Anyway, that's the end of my rant this week. I'll get over myself soon, I promise. I just needed to complain for a bit.

So, that's life here in Hayden 2nd.

Oh, and I thought of a solution to my not having anything to write home: Send me questions that you want me to answer next week over email. Then, I can just answer all of the questions each week. :)

I love you all!
Have a good one.
-Keppy

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

♪"Take it all down, 'cause Christmas is over."♫

Teancum and Friends 1.5: Happy

Hey ya'll!

Christmas is come and gone folks! Goodbye to Christmas cheer and hello to winter colds and fevers. BLECH! Yeah, me and everyone in the apartment is now sick.

Oh well, God spared us until AFTER Christmas which I am SO grateful for, because Christmas was amazing!

Teancum and Friends 1.5: Serious

Christmas Eve was like most every other day, but that night we had a dinner/contest at a ward member's house. The dinner was roast beast, and the contest was to see who could find the almond in the rice pudding by eating one bowl full at a time. When you do find the almond, it's tradition to let everyone keep eating until the bowl is full without telling anyone that you found it. The winner gets what is known as the Almond Gift, which this year was a Christmas ornament. I didn't win. :(

But then.... CHRISTMAS!!! :D

Christmas Eve dinner with members (Elder S-- on the right)

We started off the day by opening Christmas presents one at a time, and MAN was it a Christmas. We all had a blast, and there were actually quite a few presents to open, which is evidenced by our trashed apartment after we opened all of them... Yeah, we should probably fix that, shouldn't we Elder S--?

*Cough*

Anyway, after that, we went to a member family in our ward (the G--'s) to Skype and have breakfast. It was good to see everyone again, and the Crepes for breakfast were amazing. 

Elder Keppner with his comp., Elder S--

After we finished breakfast, we went and hung out with the M-- family. They are one of the freaking best families ever! We had a BLAST! Everything from sweets, Ping-Pong, Nerf wars, sword fighting and good talk. They rock! We LOVE those guys!

Elder S-- with the M-- family: The Creators of our feast!

After all of the festivities, we wound down at our Ward Mission Leader's home and had a calm dinner, and lesson.

Ah! Christmas is so awesome here in the mission!

And now, it's over... Ew, EEEEEEW. I might continue to listen to the Christmas CD's I got though for a while... ;P

Anyway, aside from that, my week has just been me trying to get over my sickness. :P

Love and miss you all! Keep being awesome!

-Elder Brennan Keppner