Work, work, work!

Chillin' on Exchanges in Colville

Hey Ya'll!

Things rockin' here in the mission as usual! We have recently been going crazy trying to get our investigators to actually show up to church, and even though we talk to them every day, and even the morning of, at the last minute, they find excuses to skip church. Why people?!? Is it so hard to sit, feel the Spirit, and do nothing but listen? Is that so hard?!? Ah! Why do people have to use their agency? ;P

Oh well, as far as me and Elder F-- go, we're great! Never worked harder, and we are constantly on the move. We've been doing a TON of service recently, which actually has been helping people soften their hearts a bit. We do somewhere within the 50-100 hours a week area, and it's been great! I'm getting SUPER good at cutting wood, raking, mowing, and moving furniture.

We love it! 

The Hand-Of-God-Chair I be chillin' on.

Oh, and it's gotten RAINY here in Chewelah. It's been raining for nearly two weeks straight, and I love it! The other Elders (including Elder F--) don't like the rain at ALL, and so they get REALLY weirded out when I'm out singing and dancing in it with a Shunk ton of energy. The cold, the rain, the trees, the mountains, I love it all! God sent me to the perfect place!

Recently, I've been feeling a bit down though. Me and Elder F-- have been working our BUTTS off, and yet, our numbers are lower than we'd like them to be. I've been asking my leaders for advice, and what they keep telling me that numbers don't define success, and to keep doing what I'm doing, so, that's what I'm going with. 

Man, I can't describe how good it feels to just go out and work hard from 10:00am to 9:30pm. It's been great! I'm so fetching happy all of the time, I think Elder F-- gets bugged by it sometimes. Especially if I get to singing at the top of my lungs. He's a bro about it though! A lot of the time, we both just kinda laugh at my antics. When you're shredding "Praise to the Man" on the guitar at 6:32 in the morning, and screaming the lyrics like a 70's rock star, Elder F-- tends to poke his head into the room with a look that's just screaming "are you for real?"

This mission thing rocks! Especially considering the fact that, IT'S ALL TRUE!!! This message I'm sharing 24/7 is something I am able to personally able to apply every day. The Spirit is a real guide for us as we go out and work, and he has led us to some amazing miracles! We see 'em every day, and they always seem to come up just in the nick of time too! Every day, I'm able to rediscover what I'm doing, and realize: I'm doing the REAL GOD'S WORK!

Every once in a while, I'll get done with a lesson, walk down the street a ways, and stop. I kinda shake my head and realize: "I'm a fetching missionary!"

It's still barely starting to settle in, but I'll have those moments a lot, and when I do, I get that awkward smile of mine, and lift my hands to the sky, usually yelling something like: "I'M A MISSIONARY!" Elder F-- then usually face-palms.

Our front yard. :D

Oh man, I love this stuff! And I love all of you! How are you doing?!? Write me! I don't get any letters/emails these days. :( 

Anyway, love and miss you all, and I hope to hear from you soon!
-Elder Brennan Keppner

Another Foggy Day in Chewelah

Foggy day...

Hey ya'll!

This last week was great! We have worked our BUTTS off, and we just keep on going! We have two more people scheduled for baptism, and we are sometimes missing meals because we are so fetching busy. We've been doing a lot of service recently, like, 100+ hours a week, and some of it is truly back breaking stuff. However, I have a new found love of splitting firewood with an ax/maul. I really enjoy working hard, and I hope to do more of it when I get home. ;P Sorry mom and dad! I never realized how awesome work is until now!

MY LIFE IN A NUTSHELL! :D

We also have been working a lot with the members. The previous missionaries REALLY did a number on the work here, and even our ward council has told us that they have really appreciated the fact that they can trust us missionaries, and that they would do whatever they could to help our efforts in this area. It's so flipping awesome! The members are REALLY doing a lot to help us out, and we REALLY appreciate it!

Elder Keppner at "Uncle Daddy's" house

The highlight of the week was probably when our ward mission leader invited us to stay at his house for a couple of nights so that he could take us around to people he knew in a distant corner of our area. Our area is HUGE! And so we don't get to see most of the people that actually live in our area because of our limited miles for each month. We agreed, got permission, and worked our butts off for those two days. We were fed well by his wife in between, so, that was good. :) 

With Elder F--

Anyway, I'm out of time, but all of you have an AWESOME day, and I hope to hear from you soon!

Love you bye, Love you bye!
-Elder Brennan Keppner

It's Fall!!! :D

Fall! :D

Holy crap! It's Fall! I haven't had a real Fall season since 2009! It is BEAUTIFUL, and it is now my second favorite season. (Winter being the first)

Firstly, I just wanted to throw out there, that I am TIRED. Me and Elder F-- have been working non-stop to move this work forward, and it's really paying off. We have three people moving towards baptism, and four new people investigating the Gospel! Man alive, me and Elder F-- are up to our ears in work, and yet, we both are just, well, happy all of the time! We get home, go over our plans for the next day, report to our District Leader, and CRASH. We don't have ANY problem sleeping at night, and we really enjoy what we do.

The lessons we teach really have the Holy Spirit testifying of the truth, and the more we teach, the happier we are.

Fire.

This week, we had a couple of interesting experiences.

The first one was early this week, when we went to visit my man B--. B-- is an awesome guy who has a LOT of questions, and he likes to ask them in quick succession. But I love this dude.
Anyway, we were teaching him on his porch, when out of nowhere, his neighbor comes over, sits on his porch, and starts listening. She was about thirty, and she was dressed in a low-cut tank top and short shorts, holding a beer in one hand, and a cigarette in the other. We continued talking to B--, and answering his questions, when out of nowhere, this neighbor looks up at B-- from where she was sitting on the porch, and says: "Why are you listening to this bull sh**?"

B-- paused for a second, and then told her: "It's not bull sh**. I like these guys. They tell the truth."
She shook her head (by this time, it became pretty clear by her body language that she was SUPER drunk), and said: "This sh** isn't real. There isn't a God. All these f****** say the same thing. They just want your money."

B-- told her that he knew that God was real, and that we just wanted to help. He was a stout defender for sure.

After a pause, I felt prompted to ask: "What questions do you have? It sounds like you have a lot of questions."

She then went off for a bit about the bad experiences she's had in Christian churches, and she said that she hated how much people judged her there. We listened, and then explained that if she had been judged and mistreated, it was because people were failing to do what God had told them.

An hour, several scriptures, and a LOT of cussing later, her questions started to change. They became less accusing, and more from the heart. In the end she said to us: "I like you guys. You really believe this stuff. You can come by my house any time to argue religion. Hey, maybe I'll even be mormon someday. I'm sorry for being a b****."

We told her that we appreciated her questions, and that we would love to discuss the Gospel with her sometime. She then apologized to B--, who forgave her, and it all ended with a prayer and some high fives. This church is so fetching true! I love being here on a mission!

 Our loverly shack of spiders. (Our house)

The second one was with our neighbor, who while he was walking past our house while we were turning in for our dinner break, Elder F-- called out to him: "Hey man! Have you ever talked to missionaries before?"

He stopped, came over, and said that in all of the time he'd lived in the house next to us, he'd never been asked. We had an AWESOME conversation, and he told us that he'd love us to swing by. He added: "Hey, maybe I'll even join your church if it's real."

Before he left, he took us to some chestnut trees, took down some of the weird prickly fruit looking bulbs, and showed us that inside of those things, there were the nuts. My mind was BLOWN. Maybe I'm just uneducated, but I was amazed.

Anyway, I hope you are all doing well, and I hope that you continue to do well.

Love you all!
-Elder Brennan Keppner

General Conference AWESOMENESS!!! :D

Me, Elder F--, and some of the awesome J-- kids watching conference.

Hello all you wonderful crazy people!

So this week was a bit slower than last week. We had a LOT of meetings, and of course, General Conference. We also did a bunch of service for some folks, which was SUPER fun!

Our focus (in addition to talking to 65 new people a week), is to gain the trust and support of the members here. Missionaries in the past seem to have really dropped the ball on the members here, and we are working overtime to get it back. 

Brother and Sister J--! :D

On that note, we actually got to watch General Conference with some of our favorite members of the ward, the J--! They are an AWESOME family, and they said that they love having us over! They're super fun, and really musically talented. After dinner and before lessons, we like to jam on our guitars with them. We have so much flippin' fun!

Saturday afternoon session selfie!

Anyway, General Conference was AWESOME! Holy cow, I've never enjoyed conference back home NEARLY as much as I've come to appreciate it on my mission. I'm really able to see now that every single talk can, and should be applied to my life. We have LIVING prophets teaching us the revealed word of God, and it's all for us! I'm so grateful for it! It's really made an impact on my life, and it always seems to come just in time to help me through hard stuff that life likes to throw at me. 

Conference on the big screen!

Anyway, the work continues to hasten, and we continue to work our butts off! As my good friend Elder W-- says: "Life is good in the mormon hood!"

I love and miss you all, and I'll be seeing you before you know it! :D

-Elder Brennan Keppner

Super Awesome Great Majestic Amazing Grand FLIPPING SWEET WEEK!

"Hey! Can we give you a card from our church?!?"

So, this week ROCKED!

First off, Elder F-- is a BOSS! We get along SUPER well, and we work fetching HARD. Our district set a goal to talk to 65 new people a week, and to everyone that's not a missionary, 65 new people every week, in a town with a population of 350, is CRAZY! But we're already seeing blessings from it! Last week, we talked to 13 new people. This week, we talked to 35 new people. Not exactly 65, but we worked our hardest, and man did it make a difference! We have a TON of new investigators, and all of them we found because of our relentless efforts to help people come closer to Christ. These people have real questions about God, our purpose here on Earth, and how they can be happy. It's great to be able to really help them!

Also of note, I have a reputation around the mission now as the Bible Thumbing Missionary. The problem a lot of missionaries face, is that they ONLY read the Book of Mormon. And they should read from it, EVERY DAY, but to only read the Book of Mormon really seems to deprive a lot of missionaries of the meat and potatoes of Christ's life and ministry. Not to mention, it makes it nearly impossible for them to connect with those of other faiths.

Now even if they DO read from the Bible, literally NO ONE I've met has ever read the Old Testament, which, while reading it again, I've found is full of prophecies of Christ, the Latter Days, and many MANY stories that help us understand who God is, and how we can be more like him.

Anyway, I guess you could say that I'm becoming a regular ol' Bible thumper. :P

Oh well. I'm getting off topic.

Mission life is great! I'm happy to be here, my companion is AWESOME, may area is GREAT, and the mission goes on! :D

I love you all!
-Elder Brennan Keppner

New Area, New Companion, New Opportunities!

Elder Keppner's in the house tonight! Read it.

Hey ya'll!

I'm sorry I missed the last couple of emails. Things have been CRAZY around here! But now they've cooled down a bit, so, that's good. :)

Goodbye to Elder W--. :'(

Now, my biggest announcement is... I've been transferred! :D I was SUPER sad to leave Elder W--, and I'm gonna miss Priest River like CRAZY, but I'm glad that my new companion, Elder F-- is a stud! We get along super well, and man, are we getting stuff done! We upped the numbers like crazy, and now we have an on-date, and five new Investigators! We're working our butts off, and it really is paying off.

Me and my man Elder F--! :D

Man, I love mission life.

There are challenges for sure, but God helps out a LOT. No matter what happens, I know that it will always work out in the end. I've just gotta be patient, and it'll all be worth it. I am of course, looking forward to returning to my loved ones in about 15 months, but I'm for sure, THIS is where I need to be. Ah! I have so little time left to serve the Lord! So little time left to learn, grow, and bring others closer to our Savior Jesus Christ!

My mission is awesome! And I'm just happy to be able to be here, and I'm looking forward to more missionary awesomeness!

o.O Camels... In northern Washington...?

This church is so true. People may not be perfect, but that's why we belong to this Church, and why we turn to our Savior Jesus Christ, BECAUSE we're not perfect, we try to learn from our mistakes, grow from our experiences, and become more like the people God wants us to be.

Goodbye to the Wild Bison! (My old District. :'( )

I can't say it enough, and I won't ever be able to express it fully, but this Church is truly Christ's Church. That's why I'm here. I'm not here because of what people have told me to do, or because it sounded like fun. I'm here because I felt God touch my life through the Holy Spirit, and EVERY time I ask, I get the same answer. THIS IS THE TRUTH.

I know that, and I've bet my life on it.

I love you, and I'm excited for when I can be with you again!

Keep the faith!
-Elder Brennan Keppner

P.S.- This is the Mom. Elder Keppner did forget to let us know that he was transferred to Chewelah Washington. He would still LOVE to receive letters from family and friends, but he's in a tiny town, and would prefer that his letters be sent to the mission home. They get them to him swiftly (It only takes ONE extra day!), so just go ahead and send them to this address: 

Elder Brennan Keppner
820 S. Pines Rd. Suite #101
Spokane Valley, WA 99206

I'm on the Up and Up! :D

This week was great!

Can I just say, I love being on my mission! This week has been crazy, awesome, and well, just another week in the Washington Spokane Mission! 

Me and Elder W-- are really getting along, and WORKING OUR BUTTS OFF! We've had some really good lessons, and we have been focusing on inviting everyone to be baptized. We are kinda baptism hungry, and we are working hard to do more, and really help our investigators to progress, and come closer to Christ.

A miracle this week we had this week came in the form of an unexpected over-the-phone lesson with our investigator M--. She had a lot of questions about the church. You see, her church had said a lot of less than kind things about us members of the church, and they had made up a ton of lies about us. But we bore our testimonies, and she said that she know that what we had told her was true, and that she wanted to know what we REALLY believe. 

So, we're teaching! It opened doors that otherwise would have been closed. 

The Lord is good! I love this work!

Sorry that it's short today, but I gotta go. :(

Thank you for your emails, and I'll hear from you soon!

Love and miss you all!
-Elder Brennan Keppner