July 13th & 20th

July 13, 2015

Zone Conference

This was a pretty busy week but it was pretty cool as well, we had divisions, zone conference, and president accompanied us to an appointment.

The divisions were pretty cool Elder Barnes who is from my group came with me and elder Juarez in our sector. Elder Juarez also went on a division with a member that day so that we could cover more ground and we were lucky enough that it rained for the first time sense ive been back to Quito. And i did not have my umbrella so we sprinted back through the flooded streets to our house, it kind of killed our day. 

This week was zone conference so that was pretty cool it helped us out a ton. Also after the zone conference we invited president to go to a lesson with us to help one of our struggling investigators. It was pretty cool teaching with president he really just invites the spirit into the lessons. The Andrade family was also able to get rid of their doubts and they set their baptismal date for the 25th so we are pretty pumped for that.

Sunday we had two really cool lessons, the Garcia who are the ones that are trying to clear up their debts so that they can get baptized, gave us a reference that was pretty cool it was sister Garcia’s mom. the lesson went really well and brother Garcia is super awesome he basically taught the lesson. i was able to hear his conversion story for the first time. He said he had a lot of doubts when first heard about the church but he decided to pray, he prayed and didnt feel any different. until the next day when his disabled mother got into to town. as he was helping her into the house he noticed something on his moms wheelchair that he hadn’t before. the back of her wheelchair had the churches logo on it. it turns out the church helped his family out when she had her acident and after all these years of having that wheelchair he hadn’t noticed until then. He then felt the spirit super strong and now he stronger the most members. 

We were also able to teach the Sanchez family they are awesome we didn’t have enough time to visit them throughout the week so we went Sunday to see how they were doing. they were actually a little mad we hadn’t come sooner they told us that if we wanted them to be ready soon enough for their baptism then you guys better come every if it’s possible to help prepare us. it was really cool to see how eager they were to listen to the gospel.

love Elder Keyes 

July 20, 2015

Jurassic World

this week not much happened but we had some pretty cool experiences. 

The first happened Monday night, it was going to be a really packed night but what usually tends to happen when we have a ton of appointments happened and they all fell through. It was weird though I wasn’t mad I just couldn’t get an investigator off of my mind so because we didn’t have anything else to do we decided to go visit him.  He was with his girlfriend (who is a member) was sick with a really bad cold so we gave her a blessing ya it was all pretty normal. We asked to share something and just like a split second think we decided to share the family proclamation. after sharing a bit of it Jefferson (the investigator) stopped and said I don’t know if my girlfriend called you or if someone sent you but I have been praying all day that I could receive something to help me guide this family better and help my girlfriend out with her kids. the spirit was super strong we told him what happened to all of our appointments and how we somehow knew we had to visit him. He is awesome and is starting to gain a testimony of the spirit little by little.

Also this week the ward did something really cool and had a activity to raise money so that two of our investigators could get married so that they could be baptized this week. they sold empanadas and morocho which is like milk with rice and raisons for one dollar and they also showed Jurassic world. They were able to raise the money and brother Garcia almost started crying when he was told what the money was for it was super awesome to see a ward come together like that.

But that’s all that pretty much happened this week the Garcia’s are getting married Friday and baptized Saturday with their cousins the Andrade family.

Love elder Keyes

here is the Garcia’s a few pig heads and we made a post card for the pope (it’s funny because potato and pope are the same word in Spanish)

Working Two Sectors

July 6th

This week we were super busy. also we now have one of the biggest zones in the mission with 25 missionaries. We also were blessed to have 16 people attend church this week, we were also able to do a bunch of divisions with members to help cover our sector.

we were able to have a lesson with the familia Mendoza and their nephew and his family the Andrade family who are going to get baptized this weekend. sister Mendoza was having some doubts and we explained endure to the end really well to her and then she was talk about wanting to listen to other churches, then sister Andrade pulled out a really humbling scripture which is in 1 nephi 14, which talks about how every other church that isn’t the one true church is the church of the devil. So it was pretty awesome to see a investigator pull that out on another investigator haha. We felt like we really helped sister Mendoza that night.

Something funny that happened this week we were teaching this little old lady and we were trying to explain what the book of Mormon is we tried to have her read one verse and well I guess she thought it was pretty interesting because she went on to read 2 chapters out loud to us and it didn’t matter how many times we said "until there" or "okay". in the end we didn’t get to much of a lesson in, but we came out of the lesson knowing that she will definitely read so that was good.

But we also found a super good chicken place that’s a huge piece of fried chicken breast and mountain of fries for 1.50 so. I was also able to eat chicken feet again and I only gagged twice this time it was pretty cool. The thing I love about Ecuador though is we always get fresh juice like tree tomato or good passion fruit or naranjilla its awesome. We also have a family that recently went to the states and they have ranch it was super awesome to have a salad with some good ole ranch sauce 

Here is me and my comp repping our new welcome pope Francisco shirts in our house and in middle earth. also are the jungle people look in the jungle. a real shrunken head the middle earth monument. me with a otavalanian hat on that is so hard that the natives used them as a second use as weapons. also this is our church

love you all -Elder Keyes

I went back to Vergil!!!

This week was a really good week we found 2 really great families, we had 9 investigators in church and I was able to go back to my first ward to see that one of my converts is going to go to the temple in a few weeks.

This week we had zone conference and I was able to see Elder Call so that was really cool. We were trained on how to work with the members better.  The meeting was in the chapel I was at when I started my mission so I was able to see some of the members there which was really cool.

But anyway the two families we found were old investigators from like July of last year and we decided to run by there to see if they would listen.  The Dominguez family was there with their aunt and it was really cool how eager they were to learn more. The aunt invited us again and she brought her family. Her husband said to us "I have listened to a lot of different churches and this was the first one to sound and appear like the church I have always heard and read about in the bible." so it was super cool to hear that, we have so many prepared people and families here.

Sunday I was able to go to Vergil and attend the meetings there while my companions were in meetings with the stake president and the other zone leaders. But it was weird it felt like I had never left in a way everyone still remembered my name and called on me in the classes more the missionaries who were actually assigned there. I saw one of my favorite families the Gallardos and their little boy Pepe was super pumped to see me they told me when I left they bought him an inflatable tiger and Pepe named the tiger Keyes haha.

Also changes came again, they mixed my sector with another and both my comps left and I and another Elder from the other sector are now with a district leader so I’m still in trios!!

Love Elder Keyes

Austin & Ryan at Zone Conference

Austin & Dinner

Big Ol' Fire

May 25th

This week started off pretty slow, but some interesting things happened too.  But first I have recovered from Chikungunya and now Elder Colfack has it.  It’s kind of funny its supposedly transmitted through mosquitos but Elder Colfack uses his mosquito net, takes anti mosquito pills and wears bug spray and still got the sickness so I guess all of that stuff doesn’t even matter to the beast mosquitos they have here!

Anyway one crazy and sad thing that happened was Nelsons house got burned down.  We were in the middle of a lesson and then we just seen a huge black pillar of smoke coming from the direction of where Nelson lives.  After the lesson we ran over there and it was raining ash, luckily he wasn’t inside.  The fireman were not sure if someone started it or if was faulty wiring (he wired it himself by taping wires he found on the street together) so it’s a toss-up which one it was.  But this experience has helped him come back to Church and apply the principles we have been teaching him more in his life.  Please pray for him this is the second time in a year that this has happened to him.

My MTC Comp Elder Olsen was transferred to my District

On a little bit lighter note, we had divisions with Elder Scanlan and Elder Gonzalez, I went with Elder Gonzalez.  He is way cool, it was kind of funny we started talking about music and found out that we like the same rock groups.  He is way cool and was actually in a band before he came out on his mission.  We found some really good contacts and found a new smoothie shop that was awesome.  It makes a really good smoothie with fruit you have never heard of like the Guanabauna.

Kind of slow week, love you all!!

-Elder Keyes  

Garcia Family

 June 1st

This week we had a meeting everyday but Saturday.  President was here for interviews so we had two days of training with him and they were really good!  The new AP’s we have did a really good job putting training together that really helped improve our training.  One in particular was about using the scriptures and relying on them more than yourself.

We finally moved all of the desks and stuff like our dressers out of our old apartment into our new place so it doesn’t feel like we are living in a hotel anymore because we have a place to put our clothes.  We gave a Nelson a few of the really old desks that were in our old apartment and he was able to sell them for some supplies to help rebuild his house.  I lucked out when we had Divisions because Elder Olsen had to help Nelson carry these huge wood planks up to his property so he could start rebuilding his house.  Elder Olsen said it was the hardest service projects of his mission.  So I was able to dodge that bullet. Ha Ha   The division was way cool we had a super good lunch, some good ol fried fish with rice and beans.  The member where we ate was excited to show us this new electric massager the he had just bought.  It worked by shocking you with these suction cup things you put on the area you want to massage.  Elder Jeffery put one on each wrist arm and then grabbed each others wrists to see how high we could go.  We got to 8 out of 15 and then it started to feel like a taser  so ya we stopped.

We have an investigator with a Baptismal date!!  Fernando is this really nice guy who has a strong desire to become a member of the church, so pray that he keeps progressing and growing his testimony.  We also rescued  (helped reactivate) a member who used to be in the Bishopric and then who fell into inactivity.   It is great to see him back at church and he is now our Mission Leader.

Love Elder Keyes