Not much time, but awesome all the same.

My new bedroom decor.

This mission is the best!

The snow is coming down in HEAPS, and there's so much of it now, that when it melts, they're predicting that it's going to flood, so, that's fun. :/


Anyway, St. Maries has had A LOT of success recently! Me and Elder M--- have worked our rear ends off, and a lot of good has come because of it! We love it here, and we work very well together!

I told you Elder M--- and I are working hard.

 We recently committed M--- to Baptism! She's working hard to overcome her Word of Wisdom issues, and we know that she can do it! Thank you so much to those who have written me! I haven't gotten any letters this week, but I had quite a few emails, so, that works out just fine!

I'm the last one awake on our roadtrip with a ward family!

Cutest kids this side of Mount Baldy!

I wanted to mention, that with transfers, there are now a lot of new Elders and Sisters here in our Zone, and it's been awesome to get to know them all!


I love serving a mission!!! :D

-Elder Keppner

Weddings, baptisms, and haircuts

My quilt! :D (Made with love by Granna Williams!)

Our apartment!

Hey everyone!

Things have been CRAZY here! My one baptism has now become TWO baptisms and a WEDDING!

Ice Scraping! Every morning! And guess what?
I LOVE the FREAKING COLD!

Here's the story:

S--- was getting set to be baptized, but in our next lesson about Temples with him and his wife A---, they asked if they could be married in the temple if they weren't married legally...

Both me and Elder M--- just about cried.

You see, they had told us that they were married, but it turns out that they CONSIDERED themselves married and that they weren't LEGALLY MARRIED.

When we calmly told them that they would have to be legally married to proceed with the baptism, A--- (the wife) started crying, and saying that they couldn't do it.

When we asked why, she said that they didn't have any money.

We told her that the wedding would be free, and completely provided for by the Church.

She then said that her one and only relative, her grandmother, lived in Florida, and would not be able to afford a plane ticket to see the wedding. She refused to be married without her grandmother.

Me and Elder M--- stopped for a bit so that the spirit could guide our next words, and then we told her that she would have to receive the answer to this problem herself from God. She hadn't prayed up to this point, but she promised that she would pray to know what to do.

The next day she greeted us, and told us to "get in gear for a wedding"! She said that she had received an answer, not only that she needed to get legally married, but that she should be baptized, and that she should work towards being married in the Temple next year. S--- and A--- both then asked to have the wedding, and the baptism on the same day, and we said that we could do that.

So! Now after only a couple of weeks, I'm staring down planning a wedding, AND two baptisms!

I can't tell you how happy I am. For once, I can honestly say that I've "Done some good in the world today". I've been able to be an instrument in God's hands and even if I never got another baptism, I will still feel like I served a successful mission, because God, through me, has made an impact in the lives of these two wonderful people.

My hair before getting it cut...

So, as far as everything else goes, things have been both busy, and productive. We now have five investigators who come each week to Church, and we have taught a LOT of lessons. Everyone knows who us missionaries are here in town, but they all also know that they can trust us, and if they ever need anything, they can "Just ask the missionaries! They can help you!"

My hair AFTER getting it cut. (Today)

Oh, we also get fed by members EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. The ward LOVES us missionaries, and we certainly won't starve out here. We spend WAY under our budget because the members give us tons of food. I now have about $200 dollars on my card, and I'm only given $80 per two weeks. I also wanted to let Mom and Dad know, that I eat EVERYTHING the members serve me!

I now actually quite enjoy Lasagna. :)

Our district pet! He was next to a trash can with a tear under his arm. We patched him up with plastic wrap, and placed him in our living room. :)

I love and miss you all, but I'm safe in the knowledge that you'll all be there when I get back, so I'm far from trunky. (Which is good because I've only been out a month. ;) )

Please continue to write me! Letters are the best gift ever get from home here in the mission field, and I treasure each one!

Love you all!
-Kep

I'm in the Mission field!

Elder Keppner with his trainer, Elder M.

Hey everyone!

Well, it's official; I'm in the mission field!

I'm sorry I haven't written in so long, but my P-days will be on Monday from now on.

The last few days in the MTC were crazy! We had meeting after meeting, and we had spiritual experience after spiritual experience. I got to go through the Provo Temple with the other missionaries in my district (which was amazing by the way), and we had a lot of lessons with investigators.

So you know that investigator A--- I mentioned before? Well, it turns out he is the Ambassador from Haiti. He was in Salt Lake and kept hearing about the "Mormons" so he went to find out what they believe. He showed up at Church headquarters and asked them what they believe, so Church headquarters sent him to the MTC to find out from the training missionaries there.

Right before we left, the other two missionaries who had been teaching him got him to commit to baptism! It was amazing, and all of us were pumped. (Pumped is a word used by missionaries A LOT, so, you can expect me to use it from here on )

Anyway, we got up at 4:00am on Monday morning and took a bus to the airport. We waited around for a bit and called home, and then we all flew together to Spokane. After meeting with President Mullen (He's awesome by the way) and going through some training, we were sent to different homes to sleep for the night.

On Tuesday, we got our new companions, and were assigned to our new areas. Being separated from my district was almost harder than leaving home. I'm really going to miss all of them, and I hope I can serve in the same district as them somewhere down the road.

SO! The big news!

My new area is: St. Maries Idaho!

Look it up on Google maps! It's a small hick town, and it's in some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen.

My first day's impression was this:

-80% of the people here are over 60.

-80% of the younger people have some form of mental disability

-100% of the people that aren't LDS smoke like a chimney

But at the end of that first day, I was feeling like this was the place I was meant to serve.

Oh! My companion! His name is Elder M_, and he is an AWESOME trainer. He also has nearly photographic memory, which helps when you're trying to find the houses 50 miles away from town which are still in our ward boundaries.

After the first day though, a really grew to love this area. I love the people here. Most everyone is so humble, and EVERYONE knows who the missionaries are, and when there's a new one. We've taught a LOT of lessons to investigators, but most of our work is helping inactive members back onto the path.

You see, there are 250 people in our ward, but less than 60 show up to church on a regular basis.

Oh! I've got my first baptism on February 8th! His name is Shane, and he is AWESOME! When I asked him to be baptized, it came so natural and easy, I was worried that maybe I had done something wrong. When he said yes, me and Elder M___ calmly finished the lesson, and then we did and interesting dance once we were outside.

I LOVE missionary work. I feel like I was born to do this, and I've never been so completely happy in my life. This is God's work, and I'm so blessed to be a part of it.

Love you all,

-KEP


Stories:

So, cool story #1. Elder Lohan (He refuses to tell us if he's related to Lindsey Lohan) was going to play Ron in Harry Potter! No joke! He is from England, and he made auditioned to be Ron back when he was eleven. He made the part, but then something happened out of the blue that made it so he couldn't take the part. He told us about how it had been one of God's mercies that he didn't make the part, because if he had, he never would have joined the Church, and he never would have been able to serve a mission. Talk about cool!

Cool story number two. In the MTC, we were assigned to clean the Bathrooms in one of the buildings. The brother in charge split us into two groups and called us Team Rocket and Team Squirtle Squad (ask Lliam, he'll be able to explain it all). Anyway, I was in Team Rocket, along with Elder F___ and Elder H___. While scrubbing, me and Elder H___ recited the Team Rocket theme over and over and over again, and then we would passionately break out into the Pokemon theme song. So, awesome times.

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