Thailand Week 63, 26 Oct 2014

Hey Family!!

Thanks for doing that family book thing!  I'd love to have one to show to investigators and recent converts as I commit them to do it themselves haha.  Oh and did Grandpa's history biography thingy ever get finished?  Could you send me that as well?  Thanks!  

It's snowing!!!  There's so much white there!  And so much white here too! Baptism!!!!  This was a great Sunday in Sakon Nakhon!  We had two baptisms and a confirmation!  And there were about 6 members who haven't been seen for too long at church that came back as well!  There were 75 people at church last Sunday!  :)  That's the most we've had in a long time! The most this whole transfer actually! The work is moving forward.  

Mom I don't know anything about the moves yet.  The Zone Leaders still haven't called.  There are 21 new missionaries coming in so there will probably be a lot of mixing things around.  We'll see how it all works out.  I'm for sure going to go down to Bangkok and renew my visa though.  That means we'll leave on Tuesday and be in Bangkok on Wednesday if the patterns of old continue.  Not looking forward to the 10+ hour bus ride, but there's not a whole lot of things that I would rather do than go to a transfers meeting.  It's such a good restart and I love seeing all the missionaries there.

Dad what's the Warren Miller ski film? Is it a big collection of cool skiing shots? I love those videos.  We should look into getting a Go Pro someday.  We do enough cool things to warrant the expense right?  Imagine...you've got a helmet cam view of a 1 banger snowmobile going on the bumpy trail through the swamp at Nancy Lake.  What more could you want?  Dad if you ever want to do a cool scripture study, read the scripture story of Jacob and the ladder to heaven while reading the lyrics of "Nearer My God to Thee."  It's way fun.

Nathan your shoulders look bigger!  Even through your dope hoody. Me and Elder Osborn have been working out every morning and I can tell that I'm getting a little bit stronger.  There's this book called convict conditioning and it has a bunch of work outs in steps.  I just passed off step 3 of the push ups.  Which is 3 sets of 30 kneeling push ups.  Before you laugh...each one has to be 2 seconds down, 1 second hold, and 2 seconds up!  It's way harder than you'd think! ;)

Natalie do you go all out for class color days at school?  Freshman are still red right?  I wear red ties sometimes for district meeting.  It make me more powerful and commanding.  For real.  If you look at the conference edition Ensign you'll see that almost all the general authorities in the spread page have red ties. ;)   

Matt that journal project mom was telling me about sounds really cool!  I wish I knew more about our ancestors.  It's worth learning!  I mean, we're going to be with Soren Ottesen for eternity so might as well study up!  I'm also glad you didn't break your arm again on the ice!  ;)  I haven't gotten too hurt on my mission.  I cut my leg destroying an old well with a sledge hammer because there was a metal ring on the inside of the concrete I demolished that hit my leg.  But it wasn't too bad.  I'll show you the video someday.  It's intense. 

I love you all so much!  Hope you have a great week!  

ด้วยความรัก

เอ็ลเดอร์เคลเลอร์

Thailand Week 62, 20 Oct 2014

Hey Family!!! 

This was one the most spiritually uplifting weekends of my entire life.  Saturday was just a big cultural event with a ton of members making food, putting on shows and just seeing tons of missionaries. Then Sunday we had the huge meeting with over 900 members from the whole Issan section of Thailand!!  President Gong, the Asia Area President, presided and we had Elder Khanakham, the first ever Thai member of the 70 there as well to conduct and lead the changes.  They dissolved the KonKhaen district and split it up between the Ubon and Udorn (me) districts to make them more strong. This will set everything up really nicely to prepare for new stakes to be made withing the next year or so.  Less according to the plans!  After that we ate lunch, (they made like 1500 brownies)  fellowshipped and caught up with members/missionaries and then headed to the church for a devotional/sacrament meeting.  It was a really special opportunity to hold a sacrament meeting.  It had to be authorized by Elder Holland even.  Elder Gong trained us on the importance of the sacrament and the importance of Christ as well.  It was the most spiritual sacrament and one of the most spiritual meetings in general that I have ever been a part of.  Elder Gong commented that this was the kind of meeting where Christ could come visit.  And he was looking at the door the entire time wondering if he would come in.  Then that Monday we had our office zone conference on the doctrine of stakes and really we just learned a ton of doctrine and principles.  One of my favorite parts was when he brought up Fire, Water, and Blood.  Which are all elements of eternity in some way or another.  Moses 6:60 and then I looked in 1 John today in studies and saw that chapter 5 has a huge section on it too.  I'm definitely going to study more into it!  These things are so exciting to me now haha. 

We have a goal of 2 baptisms this Sunday.  Transfers is in 10 days and I'm not sure what will happen.  For sure Elder Williams will leave.  That's the general consensus because he's been here 12 weeks by now.  I usually wouldn't think to move but there are 21 new missionaries coming in so they will definitely throw some crazy stuff around haha.  More than half the mission will be on the training schedule for the next bit!  That's crazy!!  I'm super excited.  Elder Hunsaker is now teaching at the MTC and I know he'll prep these new missionaries to come out and do the Lord's work!  

So some random things.  Do you know what a My Family Book is?  Probably.  It's that little Family history booklet with like 4-5 generations.  Could you fill one out for me?  Or even type up the sections and send them to me so I can put it together?  I would love to have one to show people so I can help them be motivated. 

Also during conference I felt impressed that I should continue on and go to BYU when I get back.  

Love Elder Keller

Missionaries from the Issan area

Thailand Week 61, 12 Oct 2014

Hey Family!!!

This week was super good!  Conference, new investigators, baptism, happy members, zone conference coming up, there are a lot of reasons to rejoice.

We had a good amount of investigators at church this week!  :)  A few have dates for the 26th!  We'll be in Khon Kaen for a combined tri-district conference headed by the Asia area president followed by mission tour/zone conference on Monday!!  So much Spiritual uplifting!  We're going to be floating around Khon Kaen with 3 zones worth of missionaries there.  

Dad we had an awesome finding story this week!  We were just calling the phone numbers of the people we contacted on the street to follow up and set appointments, when this lady picked up and as I talked to her and invited her to church she asked "Right now?"  I was kinda caught off guard and asked when she could come.  30 minutes later we started teaching her and she accepted a date to be baptized on the 26th of this month!  She came to conference on Sunday and loved it.  She made friends with so many people in the ward and got to watch a great baptismal ceremony for the 3 people who entered the waters of baptism yesterday here in Sagon Nakon.  The Lord is preparing people left and right!  

Mom is it true if you add an egg to a cake batter you can get brownies?  I remember hearing something like that but I was too afraid to try the other day, so we just made a flattish cake.  ;)  We bought a Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix and some chocolate frosting this last week.  I'm so excited to make it.

Nathan how is junior year going? I'm trying to remember that year...there was a lot of stupid stuff that happened haha.   So much dumb drama and stuff like that.  I'm gonna guess you just ignore it all haha.  That's the best way for sure!  I've been doing a bunch of push ups and I'm getting so yoked dude.  But too bad I eat ice cream like 4 times a week...this one member was making fun of me cause I'm fat the other day haha.  It's pretty typical here.  

Natalie there's this one member your age here and she just sits around playing on her iPhone all day.  When people were taking pictures at the baptism she was on the side taking selfies of nothing....  please tell me you aren't like that....  Just kidding I know you aren't.  How was the tri-stake dance?  Did all the Tongans make the floor shake like usual?  Just kidding.  But really.  

Matt would you dare eat bugs?  There's this one kind of curry called Little Crap Curry.  It's awful.  But they made me try it.  I immediately regretted my decision.  That happens a lot.  In order to make sure people aren't offended you have to eat sketchy food that might give you diarrhea or food poisoning.  I've had both...the horror...

Love you all!  :)  

Thailand Week 60, 5 Oct 2014

So this week was pretty good, but it wasn't really what we wanted.  We worked, taught new investigators, received some referrals, and some other good things.  But It was still disappointing to get only 3 investigators at church.  None of the people we contacted came to church and so we don't have very many new people to work with.  That's going to be one of the focuses this week.  Especially because the 18-19th we will be in Khon Gaen for a tri-district conference of the whole Issan area of Thailand!  Then that Monday is our mission tour! President Gong the area president will be here!  And we're thinking...this is a big meeting. They don't usually combine the districts like this.  And the last time President Gong came he created a new stake in Bangkok!!! :)  That's what we're hoping for!!!  

Mom I'm sorry I've been so bad at it...and still am...but here's a couple pictures!  There was a frog in a basket outside and there are a few cows that like to graze across the street.  Elder Evans likes to step outside and moo at the cows until they look at him.  Then the staring contest is on. ;)

Matt I bet you would like the frog, it wasn't like a little toad, it was a frog frog!  One day me and Elder Osborn came home and there was one stuck to our front door!

Natalie I don't know if you would like the Issan very much.  There's a ton of bugs and spiders.  There's snakes and geckos too.  I've only seen one snake so far but I've seen a ton of geckos.  

Nate we played soccer the other day for sports day and there were a bunch of Thai guys that came and played with us.  They wrecked me...they were so good.  I was so sore after that day haha.  Like my entire body hurt.  

Dad I just found out Elder Osborn loves snow machining!  Have you heard of a place called Tower Mountain?  You should look it up!

Mom our house is super nice here.  It's perfect too because all the walls are concrete and you can throw all the balls you want without a problem!!  ;)  We actually cleaned today too!  My desk looks so organized it's a miracle.  We made this kind of pork called waterfall pork the other day with the branch president here and it was pretty easy!  I'll have to figure out how to make it work at home.  

Love you all!

Love Josh

sunburn/tan line

Water buffalo crossing the street