Well Well well

December 15, 2014

As of tomorrow I only have one month to serve the Lord with all my might and strength. Needless to say this is a sad time but at the same time I have NEVER been more busy on my mission! Things are BLOSSOMING in our Ward with missionary work!

As we have brought two new families (the S****t's and the S*****r's) into the fold the ward has gotten EXCITED!  Things are looking up and are going to be changing for the better in the near future! Sister S*****r talked with her Godfather about the church and it turns out that his ENTIRE family is LDS and they have been working on him for years and he had just refused to talk about it to them. But when she came in and asked him a few questions, the first thing he brought up is "You know, those Mormon's they got something going over there". 

They then proceeded to have a 3 hour conversation about his family and how they have worked with him and about the Book of Mormon.  She left one with him, for him to read!

R***l had one of his good friends over to play after church on Sunday and that kids name is S****** S****t! They played and talked for 6 hours and even talked about how much the church is blessing each of their families (they are both just 12)!!!   

 (mom note:  Since the family’s names are blocked out, you can’t really tell… but these two investigator families have kids who are friends, and  both families independently found the gospel at about the same time, and didn’t know it about each other!

The S*****r’s are getting baptized this Saturday! And we are SUPER DUPER EXCITED to be here with them at this point in their lives where they can begin to make covenants and continue down the path to the temple and eternal life! We are SO happy that we could help this ward bring this family back! Now we just need to help her older sons come back T****s and S****s)!!!

Well the S****t’s are regular members it seems like! We had 3 lessons with them this last week the first was on Wednesday the second was on Friday and the third was on Saturday! They are AMAZING it really is SOOO fun to have been here with them, from finding them to where they are now! They have come so far-- it is always a surprise how strong the spirit is in their home now! It has drawn their family together and is still doing so and will do so for eternity! We plan on teaching them about Family Home Evening tonight and help him overcome the only road bump  that has come up.  That is that he smokes but HE WANTS TO QUIT! He has been teaching his family the things that we teach him,  as they talk about it in the car and as they eat dinner as a family! We taught them the Restoration again on Wednesday and that was because we hadn't taught it to their 18 year old or their 12 year old yet! They both had GREAT questions and J*** actually taught the Great Apostasy to them during the lesson!

This was the first lesson that we have brought a member to their house, and afterwards Brother Larson said that "in the almost 2 years that he has been in Davenport and Saint Louis it was the BEST lesson he had participated in!"

He then offered his home for this Friday to teach them in! Last Friday we taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we had our ride come in for a bit and talk and participate.  He was only going to come in for like 20 minutes, and he ended up staying almost an hour! We then taught them the gospel again on Saturday and had lunch there and then taught the Word of Wisdom! That is where J*** committed to quit smoking! At this lesson we also got them addicted to Fry sauce! ;)

They came to the Christmas Party that night and everyone came up and said hello to them and introduced themselves! It was great! Then on Sunday after they came into the building I went and shook hands with Brother Larson who was behind them and he leaned over and whispered "Elder They look like members!" and a few more comments from the day "Wow you guys look like you have been coming here for years!" to which their 16 year old said "Thanks that makes us VERY happy!" I LOVE teaching this FAMILY!

Well that has been the majority of my week except on Friday we went down to Nauvoo to have the Christmas Zone Conference and had a GREAT time there and were able to see the temple which ALWAYS lifts my spirits!

Have a Good one,

Elder Daniel Keeley

Mosiah 27:37