Brad's Mission

You guys!!!
Yall are awesome!!!! I loved your e-mails this week!!!

What an exciting day it's been to day, and an exciting week we had last week!

First off,
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE!!!! YOU GUYS ARE AAWWEESSOOMMEE!! 
I loved everything!! It's all awesome and I love it all. you guys are the best there is. I love you! Our treats cupboard is huge. Are you guys trying to give me diabetes before I get home? haha

Today was sad/way awesome! 
Here's why it was sad:
We put some incredible Elders on the plane this morning. One of them being Elder Sumsion. It sucked telling him goodbye. It was pretty sad. But he's going to be awesome and successful. We got to be really close. We had an incredible week of just hard work. It was awesome. You guys will get to meet him at my homecoming. 

It is awesome today cuz we also picked up the new load of greenies! Let me tell you, they are a pretty awesome group of Elders and Sisters! I'm very impressed with each of em! I get to drive the huge mission van now, or "the tank" as I like to call it. It was just Elder Hartt and I with a big van full of fresh meat! They are stoked and ready to go! We are going back over there in just a bit to give them some training just before they meet their companions. 

Elder Hartt and I are doing great! He's an awesome missionary!! I don't know if I mentioned this before, but he'll most likely be the missionary to kill me(send me home in 11 weeks). I love Elder Hartt! He was my zone leader up in La Habra so I've already gone on plenty of exchanges with him and know him pretty well. He's a good guy! He likes Coldplay and he's from Virginia! We're doing good!

This last week Elder Sumsion and I found a really cool new investigator from Kenya! His name is Patrick. Found knocking. He's a super nice guy and calls us his "brothers". He accepted a baptismal date for october the 14th. Hopefully he'll be able to make that. He works on sundays sometimes so we might have to push it back a bit. 

Other than Patrick we have some other new investigators as well. Noone quite as solid as Patrick, but we have some cool new prospects!

Do you remember Michael by any chance? From Morrocco. He got his Muslim interview (church policy before we teach them) and he's cleared for us to keep teaching him. I think he'll be baptized by the end of October, but we'll see! He actually just got out of the hospital with a severe ear infection! Sucks! But he's good now! So we'll start teaching him again, he was on hold for a bit. 

OH YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Derek Lasley who I baptized last year!? Him and Melissa Olson got sealed on friday and I got to be there!! It was the first sealing I've ever seen!! You guys. It was LEGIT! Such an incredible experience! Elder Lieberum and I met up at the church across the street and headed on over there. It was cool cuz there was not a lot of people in the sealing room at all. There was only Melissa, Derek, Melissa's parents, one cousin, then 2 of Melissa's brothers and their wives, Melissa's close friend, then Elder Lieberum and I. Super small group! Sister Olson was telling us before Derek and Melissa were there that that was exactly how they wanted it, a small group of people that they really wanted there. So it was an honor and a privelege to be a part of that. The spirit was soo strong! You could tell how much it meant to both of them. They just eminated happiness. They had a glow about them. The sealer said some really cool stuff too! He mainly spoke about some promised blessings found in D&C 76,110,131,and 132. I think it's really interesting that 132 is the only section that wasn't recorded the day it was received. Joseph Smith knew of the new and everlasting covenant far before recording it. I find that very significant. When he said, speaking of the first vision, "...and many other things did they say unto me..." They very well could have been speaking of this covenant, but it just wasn't time for the rest of the church to know about it. Line upon line! ( precept on precept, like a summer shower bringing us each hour his wisdom!! - Pam) haha no but it was really an amazing experience. Something I'll definitely never forget. 

Aight you guys, we gotta skip back over to the mission home to train the greenies some more!
I love you! Thanks again so much for the birthday wishes/packages! I appreciate it!!!!
Dad! Keep hanging in there! Everyone talks about what a trooper you're being! Keep it up! Your faith inspires me everyday through all this! 
I miss you guys!
Love
Elder Keyes