Brad's Mission

This week has been awesome!! It was such a rad week! Thursday I went on exchanges with all 3 of the deaf Elders. They are hilarious! Learned a ton more sign language. It's funny how easy sign language is! Within 2 exchanges I've learned how to carry on conversation, pray, and a ton of stuff! I actually taught parts of the lessons to a couple deaf people and answered their questions too! pretty cool!

K so remember Juan Guillen? His wife's name is Kelly. She has a testimony as solid as a rock and used to be on the RS presidency but for some reason is less-active, so we were teaching her and thats it. We would say hey to Juan and he was very cordial to us but didn't really want anything more that a Hi, bye, relationship. But clear back in November we got him to sit in a lesson and he liked it! We built a friendship and ever since then he's been involved in the lessons and we totally shifted focus and started teaching him without him knowing it. In late december we got him to read the BOM on his own and he opened up and told us he feels empty inside and knows that he needs God in his life. We've taught him twice since then and saturday night we taught him about Faith in Christ, Repentance, Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. He had a ton of questions about prayer, the Holy Ghost and Baptism. It was awesome! The sprit was sooo strong! We invited him to be baptized on the 25th of this month and he said,"I want to get baptized." He went from totally closed, to wanting baptism within 2 months. That's what the gospel can do. That's what reading the BOM can do. What a testimony. He is probably the most sincere investigator I've taught in La Habra other than Brother Postil(who by the way, gave up coffee 3 weeks ago, and is down to 7 cigarettes a day!)
We're so excited for Juan! He even came to sacrament yesterday! He's the best! We have a lesson with them tomorrow. Teaching about the WOW and probably about tithing also. 

We have another brand new family we're teaching! Their name is the Douglass's. Linda Douglass (the mom) is a less active. Her husband is not a member and her 9 yr old daughter Maddy is not a member and her 7 yr old Nikki is obviously not a member. But her Parents are still way active. Maddy (9) had dinner at the grandparents house the same night the missionaries did and maddy said she wants to get baptized. So we went over there and the Douglass's are sooo nice! They love us and had us over for dinner and we taught maddy and Nikki. The dad was planning on sitting in but we had to move the lesson earlier and he didn't know so he was right in the middle of something. But the mom sat in and she loved it and everything!! They really want both of their daughters to be baptized and Maddy really wants too! We have a lesson with them this week! BTW the dad looks exactly like George Clooney and he's the raddest guy ever! He's one of those guys who's always like,"Come on by man! Anytime you want! Our door is open. You are the man!" We're gunna take him for a swim.

Also! We have a lesson/dinner this week with another new investigator! I can't remember her name at the moment haha but heres the story! The Nielson family in our ward, Super active, super nice. They have a son who's less-active named Tim. Tim is getting married to this girl in the stake center by the bishop this month. Tim wants to start coming back so he told his wife about the church. She came yesterday and we talked to her after and she wants to learn and join also! We're seeing them on friday. It'll be great!

ALLSSO! We had such a great lesson with Casey and Aimee! We did our annual pit stop at burger king right next to their house to use the bathroom and we both felt prompted to share Alma 32 as the lesson with them. like a minute before we went over. So we shared it and it was one of those lessons where you know it was inspired to share. They would ask a question like,"Well what about this..." and we would just say"welp. Why don't you read the next verse and find out" and they would read it and a light would go off in them. It was awesome. Then they came to all of church yesterday. 

Ok I'm done with my week report! haha It's been such a exciting week! I love being a missionary! 


So, Elder Belle is hilarious! I don't know if I told  you guys, but he is a special assignment from President. He is struggling and noone can get along with him. He didn't want to work at all and is so reserved that noone can break him. But he's awesome!! We are already way good friends!! haha He's such a funny kid if you just have patience with him and be real with him! Sure he is shy and reserved to others but it's just who he is! I love the kid! I laughed so hard everyday this week! Especially yesterday! haha I'll tell you a quick story. 
We were sitting in sacrament wayy before it started cuz we get a ride from the other elders and they have 9 church so we just go sit in the chapel once they're done.
So we're sitting in there and it was freezing! So Elder Belle went over and turned the heat all the way up. I told him,
"Bishop's going to hate you for that."
and  he was like,"Bishop's over-weight! Why do we all have to suffer cuz he's unhealthy!" "He should sweat it out!" 
hahah Oh my gosh I thought I gained a 12 pack. if you knew the kid you'd think it was hilarious. 
So we're good! haha

So I need to tell you guys a revelation I had this week. I was thinking about the future. don't worry, not in a trunky way. But just thinking about my dreams and what I want to do with my life. I was feeling a little discouraged. I love music and I will do it for the rest of my life, but it takes work to get where I want to be in that industry! And you have to be solid as a rock in what you stand for. As I was turning all of this over in my head and feeling a little discouraged about something that difficult being my dream, I realized something. Is there any dream at all that we have that isn't challenging? My ward mission leader always tells us,"nothing in life is free. Even a good women comes with a price tag!" haha obvious joking but do you get my point? It's a dream for a reason! Heavenly Father gives us desires of what we would like to accomplish in this life, but because it's challenging or difficult to accomplish does that mean we give up? Because it will try us and possibly not come true does that mean we just lie down and don't even attempt it? I thought about this too. If someone came to me with the thoughts I had, I would tell them to cowboy up and do it!! God gives us these desires for a reason!! It's not to set us up for a reality check, or to get slapped in the face by life, or to set us up for failure. God doesn't work like that, Satan does. It's so we can grow and test ourselves! And reach for the stars! I believe we have dreams because God gave them to us. And I believe we should follow them. All we need to do is make sure it's in His way without distracting us from laying our tresures in Heaven. You know what else I realized? I have no doubt in my mind that I can accomplish what I want to. 

haha sorry, soap box round 2!


 Aight you guys. This e-mail was wayy long! ha sorry!  I just can't help but be thrilled to be where I am. There are way to many things to tell you and it's hard not to spend 5 hours telling you them all, but we'll have plenty of time for stories :) I mean. Eternity is a pretty long time! 
I love you so much! I miss you! It was awesome to hear from you!!
I love my mission!!
Elder Keyes