FAMILY!!!
I don't know why, but you're e-mails were like ultra-exciting this week. Good job! Bueno
Ok so before I forget their names I have to tell you about a family I had dinner with
Loren Dalton, and Anette Nielson.
They are the parents of this kid named mike in the YSA. They were Box Elder Bees! Brother Dalton LOVED grandpa Gordon! As soon as he said they were bees I just said,"D'you know Gordon Peterson?" He got so excited and grinned ear to ear,"Do I know Gordon Peterson?? He was my favorite teacher of all time! I got to be so close to him! He was my athletics coordinator! What a good guy!" He was very thrilled to find out he was my Grandpa. He even ran up and grabbed all of his high school year books. Turns out, between the two of them they knew, Joel, Brother Dalton wanted to date Kerri, Jay, Sister Dalton wanted to date dad, Edith, and Doug! haha crazy right? They graduated the same year as Doug and Eddie. It was a super fun dinner and I got to look at some FANTASTIC year book photos of the family! Pahahah! And everyone made fun of my long hair....rrrright!
Pretty cool though huh?
You guys, this ward is the bestttt!!! I've already gotten to be close to like the coolest people ever! Casey Goodman is like our go-to guy. Such an awesome guy. He looks like a cross between James Francoo (Harrry from spiderman) and Brandon flowers with a Mustache in that one music video and the new drummer of UnderOath. There is a girl in our ward who looks exactly like Gwenyth Paltrow (Pepper Pots in Iron man), Our bishop looks like that one ork in LOTR that says"I don't take orders from Ork Maggets." A fatter version of Jack White is in our ward, and Serious Black minus the long hair is in our ward. And Valerie from Jose and the Pussycats is in our ward. And probably the most shocking one of all (like I thought it was actaully him at first) was Tim Mctague. His real name is jake but he looks identical to the guitarist for Underoath it's crazy.
Ok you guys. So. Missionary work. This week we taught Orien and His sister Alicia. She is his half sister but they are reunited again. They had a pretty rough up bringing, Orien used to be opposed to religion and Alicia used to be wayy strong in the church. Now Alicia is less-active and she was opposed to the church and Orien wants to get baptized more than anything and he blieves it with all his heart. He tells us everytime we come over,"I actually really love meeting with you guys. I wish you could come over every day." He's such a down to earth kid. 22. And this last week we had a lesson with them. Alicia sat in for the 2nd time ever. We brought a kid named Arlen with us. (awesome kid). And we taught them a really powerful lesson. Afterwards Alicia just was like,"Can I just tell you guys something?" And just started crying. Then went on to tell us about how the change in her brother has meant so much to her, and she recognized our persistance, and because of that it caused her to think about where she is and she explained this experience she had where she was thinking about the church and had,"A change of heart." Where the spirit completely overcame her and she changed. She explained that she was feeling so sorrowful for not being active and that she wants to come back. I don't know how many times she thanked us for continuing to come over and for changing her brothers heart, but I think that's the most sincere I've seen anyone about anything in a very long time. Just how she looked us right in the eye and could hardly speak as she told us thank you was overwhelming. It was such an intense moment with feeling the spirit. I know that the change of heart that took place within each of them, was that of God. Only he could have the power to demand such a sincerity as we saw. What a powerful experience that was! Orien was supposed to get baptized this saturday, but we want him to come to church one more time before he gets baptized. Technically he could, but we aren't going for a number here, so we're going to wait. So cool. That will be a powerful experience.
You guys. P-day was crazy today so far!! haha We hiked a place called Carbon Canyon! It's this huge hill where you can see our whole mission all the way to the ocean! Seriously, so beautiful! I took pics, no worries! it reminded me a lot of utah actually! It was so much fun. I've gotten to be super good buddies with this kid named Elder Barnes! He's a black kid from Georgia and he is the most fun, loving kid in our zone. He's awesome and stinkin hilarious! Me and him were just laughing and joking like we'd been friends for years today! It was such a fun activity and now we're going to the gym to place hardcore wall ball! haha
I gotta tell you about a cool experience before I wrap it up.
So elder bartholomew and I love to find people! I've never had a companion that will just walk the street and talk to everyone with me, but he's awesome! We'll spend hours sometimes just walking around Csuf (Cal state University Fullerton) and just talk to everyone we see and then it gets addicting so we do it even more. But we were doing that this week and we had just started out. We walked by a group of kids and for some reason it just didn't feel right so we walked by and we're just like ok whatever we'll get the next people. SO we see this asian guy about to walk past us so we just gave him a little invitation and then asked,"Could we teach you more about this?" And without resistence just said,"Ofcourse! I've got til 4 o clock! Isn't there one of your church buildings just up here?(the institute) Lets go there and talk!" Mind you it was lik 230. So this guy was totally cool! the son of a pastor but just wanted to learn about mormon! Hadn't heard anything about mormons and he wanted to know what we had to say! Super cool kid and had some very good, very sincere questions for us. The lesson went so smooth and we're meeting at the institute with him again this thursday! His name is Jason.
Yeah so my e-mails have been rediculously long lately, but I finally have a companion that I can rely on and who is fun and can lead with me! (Yes, we're both zone leaders) And this area is so awesome! I love my ward. I love everything about this transfer!
I love you guys so much! Thanks for all your e-mails and everything! Mom+chad I need a ton of Projector Cds. People are begging!
I miss you guys!! Soo good to hear from you. I think about/pray about each of you everyday!
Love
Elder Keyes
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