Conference, Conference and Conference

Hello Everybody!

About a week and half ago we had emergency transfers.  So now I am in a trio!  Still in the same area with my same comp but we got a new comp from the neighboring area.  And there is another American in my district now!   The mission is almost half Americans so it’s kind of remarkable that I’ve never been serving close to another one.  Trio life is interesting.  The dynamic is definitely different than a regular companionship, but we’re having a lot of fun!

This last week we had Zone conference and Stake conference so we spent almost 5 days outside of our area in a city called Lafaiete because it didn’t make sense to travel between the two conferences.  Zone conference was super lit as always.  I feel like I learned so many ways to improve as a missionary that I’m a little overwhelmed. But I’ll start one bit at a time.  Also, at Zone conference, I got to hang out with my mission ”dad” Elder Braz and my MTC comp Elder Jones.  In fact, the Saturday between Zone and Stake conference Elder Jones and I went out together to make some street contacts and knock some doors.  It was a pretty fun day and it was cool to see all the progress we’ve made since the MTC.

Another random thing is that the Stake President here went to college in Oceanside. He speaks SUPER good English and he owns this super successful English school.  Kinda weird that I met the dude in Minas Gerais Brasil (the middle of nowhere)  but that’s the mission for ya.

Since I’ve been outside of my area so much, I’ve had a hard time getting to know the area, but I feel like now I’ve finally got it figured out.  We have a decent number of interested people.  So I’ll let you guys know in the coming weeks how it’s going.  

ALSO!  I somehow managed to completely drop the ball and and didn’t plug General Conference in my last email.  So here I am over a week late, but guys General Conference was so good!  How incredible is it that we have a Prophet of God on the Earth today?!  I remember as a kid I was always so bored by General Conference and I didn’t really understand why it was so important to listen to these wise old men speak.  But now I better understand that these men are apostles called by Jesus Christ exactly like the apostles in the New Testament to bear witness of Him!  I especially loved Elder Holland’s and Elder Rasband’s talks.  And I absolutely loved President Nelson’s talks this conference.  I’m impressed by how boldly and powerfully he speaks considering his age.  There are two things he said in this conference and in others that really testified to me that he is a prophet of God who receives revelation to help the whole world.  One was “Your are constantly on my mind”.  One thing I have learned for myself is that like D&C 98 says, we are required to “study it out in our minds" before we receive answers from God.  It’s cool to see that even the Prophet follows this counsel and I am certain he receives revelation because of it.  Another thing that really hit me was when he said “I love you”. I was really impressed by how sincere he was.  Being a Prophet of God is a pretty big job and it's one that only can be done with true Christlike love.  I’m not gonna pretend to be an an English major or anything right now but one thing that has stood out to me since learning Portuguese is our languages’ lack of a plural you, like voces, in Portuguese.  So I think it’s super cool that the phrase “ I love you” can be both specific and general.  I think its really fitting that God uses His mouthpiece to tell the world that He loves us.  

I love you! 

Elder Keeler