Short. Again... Sorry

Me and Nightwing

Hey everyone!

Once again, I'm out of time, but I wanted to let you all know that things are going SUPER well here! We've been teaching a LOT of lessons, and having some great success.

We also found two kittens alone and dirty, so, we took them home, named them Nightwing and Shade, and got some formula for them. We then called up a bunch of people in our ward, but none of them wanted to keep them, so, I got in contact with Sister J-- from Chewelah. And she, her son I-- and her daughter H-- came down and claimed them. It was great to see them again, and it was good to know that they were able to get a good home. Just another day in the mish.

I'm really gaining a testimony of hard work. It is SO REWARDING!

Me and Elder E-- are getting along great, and I really like hanging with this kid.

There has been a lot of trials too though. But you know, even as I watch people slip away, it has only strengthened my testimony that I'm doing the right thing. I'm here to help people come home, and be fortified safely through Christ.

It's amazing!

I get to go forth and seek the lost, the broken, and the hurting, and do my best to help where I can, and point them to the one man who can save them.

I love this. I really do. I never want to stop.

Love you all!
-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

CRAZY CRAP!!!

My new area!

Hey, ya'll!

This last week has been CRAZY! So, I got emergency transferred away from Chewelah! :'(

There was a group of missionaries that made some dumb decisions down in Hayden, Idaho, and so Monday night, I got a call from President M--.

"Hello, is this Elder Keppner?" He asked. I said yes.

He then said "Elder Keppner, you are being transferred to Hayden 2nd, and you will be training. You will be leaving tomorrow morning at 9:00am."

I sat there dumbfounded for a second. "President, did we do something wrong in Chewelah?"

"No." He replied. "You've done everything right. I'm sending you there because I know that you can fix the problem. You are the solution, not the problem. Training is a privilege. I'm putting my trust in you."

After the call, I packed, made some calls to the AWESOME members here in Chewelah, and took off. I'll be honest, when I first got the call, I was TICKED. I couldn't believe that after tons of hard work, two new on-dates, and a whole ton of new investigators, I was getting transferred away, for something I DIDN'T DO. I raged well into the night, and I finally just hit my knees, prayed for strength. I'll admit, I cried a bit.

Elder W--, at the Halloween party! :D (Also from AZ and an old friend.)

The next day, I rode down to Hayden 2nd with Elder W--! Elder W-- is heading to the good ol' CDA, but we were heading the same way, so we rode together. When I got there, it turns out, I'm sharing an apartment with three other Elders! We are two separate companionships, but when we all turn in for the night and get done with planning and such, it's GAME NIGHT!!! We play board games, tell stories, and talk about our day. It's AWESOME! We all get along SUPER well, and we have a blast.

Halloween costumes for Teancum and Friends

Now, my new companion. His name is Elder G--, and he is SO FETCHING AWESOME! He is green, but he really wants to work. His last companion who got ET'd didn't like to work, and Elder G-- wanted nothing more than to hit the streets and talk to people. So that's what we did! Last week, we really worked hard. Oh! Did I mention that I'm now on a bike?!? Yup! Full time! And in the middle of our area, there is a HUGE fetching hill. And while it sucks to go up the darn thing, going down at crazy speeds is SUPER fun.

Ugh. The one downside is that I'm now in the city. To be honest, I'm having to swallow some of my pride, and go out and work. There is a real difference between the city, and the country. Personally, I really prefer the country. I've lived in the city my whole life, and now that I'm back in it, I feel trapped. Everyone has WAY more money than they need, and they all seem to be competing to appear the best looking, richest, and or most popular. I can't stand it now. To those of you at home, I'll be sure to visit all you folks in the city, but I'm heading out into the boonies.

All of that aside, I'm working hard, teaching lots, and having a BLAST while I do it!

Have an awesome day, ya'll!
-Elder Brennan Keppner


PS: So, us four guys in the apartment kinda started a band. It's stupid, but it's SO FETCHING FUN! We're called "Teancum and Friends". We only have one song done, but we're writing more. We are also making a music video to send to our families soon, so, keep an eye out for it ya'll! It'll knock your socks off!

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