Thailand Week 41, 24 May 2014

Hey Everyone! 

It sounds like you guys are ready to slide into summer with all the camping and everything! 

Right now we're under martial law but everything is fine here.  We go home earlier and are conservative in our outward actions, but other than that we have normal lives.  Especially here in the office haha, we just chill and do our work.

This weekend we have two people getting baptized!!!  One Sister was questioning baptism and the Spirit guided us to scriptures that really helped her.  That's one thing I've found, using scriptures with investigators is definitely the best way to help people or to teach a point.  We shared 3 Nephi 13:31-34 which talks about not thinking about all the problems that tomorrow could bring, but just doing what we really know is right.  She said it really helped and she is going to go to church tomorrow and get baptized!

The other Sister has an awesome story too!  She really really wants to get baptized but she had a problem with her work and couldn't get off on Sundays to dome to church. But we talked to her and she had enough faith to make a miracle happen!  Sunday morning as she was getting ready for work she knew she was going to go to church, so she decided to put a dress on.  Then as her mom was driving her over to wok on her scooter her dress got caught in the bike and made them fall over.  All they had were some scrapes but they went to the hospital and she called in work and got off!  So she came to church!!  And then she got work off for the next couple weeks so she can get baptized!!

We have seen so many miracles lately and we know there are only more to come. 

Spiritual Thought:  The Lord knows what we need and will take care of us.  Us worrying about it does not help anything, there's enough evil in the day already.  So we just need to have hope and smile!

Love Elder Keller

Thailand Week 40, 17 May 2014

This week Elder Wolfley and I definitely learned that when we are diligent in our work and we wait with faith the Lord will guide us and pour out blessings.  Our mission is continuing to grow and reach new heights, this month the goal is 3 baptisms per companionship.  Working in the office, we don't get as much time to proselyte as most missionaries, but that shouldn't be a problem and we are determined it won't be. 

Last weekend we had our first baptism of the month!  It was such a happy day!  She bore testimony about how comforted she felt after she was baptized!

So as happy as a day that was, we still had a lot of work to do and didn't really have solid names for baptism the rest of the month.  But we did our contacting everyday and prayed really hard for miracles and that God would prepare someone for us.  Thursday and Friday that all came to pass.

Yesterday was one of the greatest days of my mission for sure!  We had a ton of appointments set up and had confirmed quite a few of them.  We ended up teaching 3 different lessons to three new investigators.  All who accepted baptism dates for the 25th of this months!!  All three are super prepared and the lessons were full of the Spirit!  

I know that Heavenly Father hears our prayers and is 100% willing to help us with our problems when we do our part diligently.

I'm so excited to see what this next week brings!

Elder Joshua Keller

Thailand Week 39, 9 May 2014

I could write a whole ton but I'll be seeing you in a couple days so I'll just talk to you then haha.  Life in Asoke is really good.  I'm more of a city boy in my mission that anything else I realized.  I've been in Bangkok for like 5 months now!  I'll probably go to someplace in the middle of nowhere next and have to deal with giant spiders and snakes and scorpions and all that fun stuff haha.  I'll make sure to send you a ton of pictures. ;)

Mother's Day 2014

Bangkok

Thailand Week 38, 3 May 2014

Well this week has been pretty crazy.  It's hard to believe that transfers was only a week ago.  We've done a ton of stuff.  Transfers just wrecked us as far as a sleeping schedule, then there were a bunch of late nights trying to catch up.  For the last two days we've been driving around helping missionaries move houses and delivering washers and stuff.  It's been a long week that's for sure.  But even though the moving was a pain and a lot of work, it really was fun to help those missionaries and at the end of the day service is always satisfying.  The trick is just remembering that as your about to start.  

This week has also been full of miracles.  We've seen many blessings in the way of new investigators and opportunities to teach. Elder Wolfley is just full of faith and is always happy to work.  It's been stressful trying to get everything done, and we're not finished yet, but the Lord's hand is in all things.  We just have to rely on the Spirit, pray really hard, and then act like the miracle is right in front of you.  If you don't work like you're planning on a miracle you'll see a lot less of them I've realized.  I love being a missionary because it's full of miracles and you can see blessings every day if you're looking!

Love Elder Keller

Thailand Week 37, 25 April 2014

Hey family! 

This week was crazy.  Transfers was on Wednesday!  And today is Saturday! So that means I'm in the office for another transfer!  I've been an office elder now for longer than I've had a normal assignment.  My new companion is one transfer younger than me and Elder Wolfley is a way solid missionary.  I've been here for what like 9 months in country?  And I've only had two areas so far haha.  A total of 5 companions though.  It's weird to realize that I'm not actually young in the mission any more.  Sometimes it's really easy to get worried and stress about all the things you think you can't do.  But I look back on who I was and I can see that I've changed so much.  I feel like more than changing me, being a missionary has just opened up all the potential that was there before.  I've learned so much about myself, about other people, and about the gospel.  This is definitely the best decision I've ever made. 

Ether 12:27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

This week we have a baptism coming up! :)  We're super excited for her!  We've been teaching her for about a month now.  She came from a different Christian faith and she has really strong faith in God and Jesus Christ.  In our lesson yesterday she talked about how she believes God will help us but only if it's something we need.  She understands that trials are a part of life and hearing her testimony really brought the spirit.  :) 

Our van is still going strong.  I'm driving in Bangkok traffic like a Thai person now.  I can't tell if it'll make me better in America or not.  I just take over lanes and stuff all the time.  You have a sphere of influence on the roads.  Being in a big van we have a decently sized sphere.  You kinda just edge around and flow with all the traffic. They're going to replace our van and we might get an even bigger one. Like a 16 passenger van.  That would be nuts.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Mom I've eaten so much junk food lately.  Between your package and the package from Amanda I just have candy and stuff all over.  Elder Wolfley and I plowed through the rest of the nutter butters today.  We're going to make the cookie mix Amanda sent this weekend, it's just never going to end. Oh well I don't have to be in shape on a mission right?  I'll just run a ton when I get back. ;)  We're going to clean our house today so maybe we won't have ants in the bathroom.  We don't eat in there so I don't actually know why they're there.  But we'll take care of it. ;)  These missionaries were filling up the baptismal font the other day and a giant deadly centipede came out of the drain and was running around.  I saw a picture of it and it was like 15 inches long.  So freaky.  Luckily we don't have too many bug problems here haha.  

We're so pumped for May to come!  There's a mission wide goal for 3 baptisms per companionship and me and Elder Wolfley are going to work so hard to hit it!  With faith and hard work the miracles will come! :) 

Love Elder Keller

Thailand Week 36, 18 April 2014

Hey mom!

I got the Easter package!!  I'm wearing the tie right now and the Peachie Ohs are in my backpack to snack on today!  :)  I'm trying to save the candy and not eat it all at once.  I was way fat in the MTC and so now I'm slimming down a bit.  It's hard sometimes when you eat 7-11 food for like 5 meals a week. But it's whatever.  My shirts are so big that no one actually knows what my body looks like.  All the members (there's a ton of like 20 year old girls....)  call me the little bear elder and talk about how fat I am all the time.   That's just a normal thing in Thailand.  They talk about stuff like being overweight and diarrhea no problem.  One time this member was like "Elder you've gotten fatter since you've been here (which is false)."  I told her that I had actually gotten skinnier here and she was like "No look at your shoulders.  They've gotten broader and so you're fatter!"  You just can't win in Thailand...

This week is transfers week!  I've been in Asoke in the mission office for about 18 weeks now.  I'm not sure what'll happen now.  Either I or Elder Smith will definitely leave the office.  I'm pretty sure one of us will stay though because white washing the office would be a messy thing.  

I'll be kinda sad to leave if I do because there are like 3 investigators we have lined up for baptism on the 27th!  One of them has been learning with us for like a month and a half or something.  She was always good in lessons and stuff but she just wouldn't accept a date at the beginning.  She finally feels ready and is going to get baptized for sure! :) Lately I've been getting a lot better at just doing what needs to be done and trying to be more direct and aware of the spirit.  I feel like it's been working! Our lessons feel stronger and I'm overall just happier.  The best way to know if you are doing the right thing in life is to look for the influence of the Holy Ghost.  If you can feel the Holy Ghost working in your life, take it as confirmation that you're doing the right thing. 

I'll keep you updated on the transfers! I should know maybe Sunday or Monday when we start putting together the slide show.  I love you guys!

:)

Love Elder Josh Keller

Thailand Week 34, 4 April 2014

Hey Family!

This week was crazy.  Last Sunday they got the total for all the baptisms in the month of March.  We had the theme of March Madness going trying to get every single companionship 2 baptisms for the month of March and a total of 200 people baptized.  Last Sunday was pretty intense with the Assistants and the Zone Leaders going crazy gathering up every one's data. That also meant we had a ton of baptismal records to do...my fingers actually were like worn out.  I can type in Thai pretty dang good now though.  The total came to 212 people baptized in the month of March!!!  We exceeded our goal even!!  It was such a huge accomplishment!  

The Lord's work is going by so much faster.  That "Hastening the Work" thing is really unfolding before our eyes.  The key that we've been working on is testifying of the truth and really helping others feel the Spirit. There's an old talk called "The Challenging and Testifying Missionary" that kind of started this whole fire in Thailand.  I've been studying it lately.  There's nothing we can do or say to truly help someone be converted aside from testifying boldly by the Spirit.  I've been trying so hard to get that into my system.  To testify to everyone. If someone gives you more than the half second on the street then bear testimony of baptism and God's love for all of us.  It definitely works miracles.  

So last Sunday we had this other really strange experience.  President Senior had a friend who had a friend who knew a Thai member of the church a while ago.  Like 10 years, and hasn't been able to contact him.  We got an assignment to go out and do our best to find him.  The info we had was like 10 years old so we didn't know how much of it was true.  The phone numbers weren't good, the email wasn't good, figures because they hadn't worked for the other guy.  So all we had left was a 10 year old address that they said was more like his parents business address. The google maps in Thailand is pretty bad at finding stuff so we had to do some work with the address but we found it with street view and everything so we knew exactly where we were going.  We got there in a taxi and showed some pictures to the lady that came to the door.  After talking to her we got permission to go talk to his family inside.  We learned from his dad and his younger brother that he passed away 10 years ago.  It was such a sad story, and the families beliefs didn't give them a reason to expect to see him in the next life.  We shared our message about the plan of salvation and tried to leave a strong feeling of the Spirit.  It made me think about how important this life is and how important the gospel is.  Especially to families.  I'm so grateful that I have the knowledge and testimony about the truth of God's Plan for us.

Oh and a little announcement.  They now have 4 APs here!  Elder Chelson my old ZL got bumped up to traveling AP with Elder Wilson. So now Elder Lucas my 2nd companion is my new zone leader!  I'm in the same district as both of my trainers! It's pretty weird but way fun! :)

Love you all!

Love Josh