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

Training Meeting Pictures

President Mullen teaching

Elder Keppner's mom here:

I love the Washington Spokane mission's Facebook page. They post lots of wonderful pictures of all their trainings and meetings, so i scan them for any sign of Elder Keppner. it makes me so happy! :-)


So while I don't have captions for these photos, I love seeing our Elder and some of his former companions there learning and growing!

Sister Mullen, mission mom

Find Elder Keppner!

His trainer is on the far left

I see Elder M--, his last District Leader, in the bottom left.

Former companion, Elder W--, is second from the left.

On the bottom right sits E.K.'s friend from the MTC, Elder H--.

There's his last companion, Elder S--, on the left back row.

Our Elder Keppner at Zone Conference

Transfers Suck

Yeah, there's not a whole lot to say this week other than: Transfers suck.

I'm still freaking out and trying to think of what I'm supposed to do now. I'm kind of a mess right now, so forgive me if the email is short.

As for details, I'm moving to be the District Leader in Moran Prairie; the ghetto of Spokane. Elder S-- will be heading to Pullman 2nd. Yup. What this means: They shut Hayden 2nd down.

I can't tell you how freaked out I am by it.

The work here has been great. We've been teaching like crazy, loving the people here, and being obedient, and yet, "in the end, it doesn't even matter".

I love this place, and the people in it. Investigators, members, and Elders in the Zone.

AGH!

Anyway, I need to go pack.

I love you Hayden 2nd, and I love all of you amazing folks in it.

For all ya'll... I've got some pictures here too.

Splits with L--

Something I ate this week.

Bye,
-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

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