Transfer Calls and Miracles

Hey ya'll!

This week was, well, amazing.

We went about and taught tons of good peeps of course, and we had a blast while we did it as per usual. But God blessed us with a real miracle this week.

We were teaching a young woman named K--. She is a single mom, and her son is just turning 3. Her Grandma, Mom, and sister are all recent converts, but there was a lot keeping her from getting baptized. She has had such a hard life, and it's amazing that she has made it through so much.
She had some big Word of Wisdom things she was dealing with, and a LOT of it. Her friends did it too, and it was just a nasty trap for her. We had mentioned baptism in the past, and she said that when she wants to head in that direction, she'll let us know. But until then, back off.

So we did.

We taught, and shared Spiritual messages, and bore testimony, but we never pressured her. (I'm not a fan of the whole "pressure people into baptism" crap. :-p)

Then, this week, we showed up there for the last lesson of the day, taught a message, and bore our testimonies. She listened, and then she started crying softly. She told us that she wanted desperately wanted to be free, and come closer to God. It was beautiful.

When we got home that night, she texted us, and said that she wanted to be baptized. She went on to tell us that she had quit EVERYTHING. She was clean of everything. After years of craziness, she told us that she wanted to have a better life for her and her son. She said that she knew that the church was true, and that she wanted to be part of it. 

Elder E-- and I just kinda stared at each other in shock. It was so surprising, but folks, I can't tell you how good it felt.

The next morning, she texted us and gave us the date: June 13th.

We are SO PUMPED!!!

She has been through so much, and now, she is coming to the light, and fighting hard to get there.
The war is still on, and withdrawals are fetching BAD, but she worked a system worked out with us. Whenever things are getting crazy hard, she calls us, and we talk things out. It's been good. She is six days and counting sober now, from EVERYTHING! We're so proud of her!

Now, for transfer calls........................................................................................

WE'RE BOTH STAYING!!!

Elder E-- feeling under the weather

Elder M-- is staying too which is sick, but Elder K-- is leaving, which SUCKS! Oh, and my old companion Elder F-- finished his mission today, which also SUCKS! I'm gonna miss him so bad! 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CHANGE! WHY?!?

I guess it could be worse, but still, transfers are NOT my favorite.

Anyway, I love you guys! Keep the faith, stay true to who you are, and come to Christ.

Love you all!
-Keppy

General Conference and Headcolds

Spring in Washington!

Hey everybody!

This week was ALL OVER THE PLACE. The week started normal enough, but then... I got a cold from Elder E--. Since then, it's been an interesting trip.

The weather was beautiful though! It has warmed up quite a bit, all the leaves are coming in, the animals are up and about, and the flowers are in bloom.

We taught a lot earlier in the week, and then when Thursday rolled around, it got slower. Thursday is weekly planning which needs to take up hours of our day, Friday was a Zone meeting which also ate up a bunch of our hours, and Saturday and Sunday were General Conference days.

Dat Conference, though! For anyone who missed it, you gotta go back and watch all of the sessions! I loved all of the talks, and it really felt like each one spoke to me personally.

Oh, and Elder E-- is a convert, so this was the first time he's seen all of the sessions of General Conference. At the suggestion of President Mullen, he went with a question he wanted answered about marriage, and holy moly did he get an answer. Almost every talk hit on his question, and he and I laughed every time it came up.

"I'm never going to come with a question again." He told me afterwards.

Saturday was super fun though! We met up at a members house, and watched the Conference, had breakfast, lunch, and played some games between sessions. It was super fun! :D

But, we got sick which made everything a LOT harder. I had a moment after conference was done that I really just wanted to stay in and do nothing because of how crappy I felt. I sat there for a minute debating which, I would do. But then, a nagging little something reminded me: "You don't have a lot of time bro."

I grabbed my stuff and hit the streets. It was crappy, but I didn't regret a second of it.

And then, we woke up this morning to help a pastor move, aaaaaand, it was snowing.
o.O

Spring in Washington?

God is so good guys. He always helps us in the way we need it most. We have some investigators with unique needs right now that are severe, and it has been weighing on me heavily recently. I don't have the right to give details, but it's been HUGE stuff that has eternal consequences. The crazy part is that everyone turns to us missionaries, and expects us to know the solution.

"You're the Elders! What should I do?" is a common phrase, and it's terrifying. What always ends up happening, is me and my companion pray, squirm a bit, and then tell them to the best of our ability what will help them. And the crazy part: if we really answer through the Spirit, it always works.

Guys, I can't stress enough that we're dumb 20 year old kids. But neither can I truthfully say anything less, than that God works through us to do what no mortal could ever hope to achieve; no matter how strong or wise they may be.

This Church is true guys. And this mission is the best thing that's ever happened to me.

Love you all!
-Keppy

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

Short because that's life. :/

Hey all! Almost no time at all due to some elders needing a ride, so I'll make it sweet. This place is good! Ghetto, and VERY city, but there is a LOT of work to do, and that's the way I like it!

This Church is true guys. I swear on my life. And that's why I'm here.

Oh, and I got another baptism! G-- is SO LEGIT! She is 100% converted, and she has been great to work with!

Oh, and my companion, Elder E--, is awesome! I love this dude! He's also from Arizona (Tuscon), and it's good to talk about the old desert.

Keep it up! 

Love ya'll!
-Keppy

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

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

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

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

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