Leaving for Oregon in one week!

For your reading enjoyment, here is Elder Keith's latest email and pictures! 

This week has been so crazy!  Something significant happened everyday and it's been amazing!

Where to start?

1.  District A left this past Monday and everyone was an emotional wreck.  It was like saying goodbye to your brothers and sisters.  We had all grown really close to one another and it was sad to see them go, but awesome at the same time because they are now spreading the good word all over Argentina.  As a treat for them, we didn't go see a church film last Sunday but instead all got together and had a get together where they all had a chance to bear their testimonies to us and say goodbye.  Everyone was emotionally exhausted by the end of it but it was a nice time to say goodbye!  

2.  Jorge.  This week was our last week to teach Jorge and we all know how hard he has been.  This past Monday was such an amazing lesson!  The Spirit was there and was so strong, it was seriously so amazing!  He wanted to know more about baptism and he accepted our invitation to read with his wife and he said they both felt the Spirit while reading and he knew what he was reading was true!  FINALLY!!  

Last night was our last lesson with him and, I'm not kidding when I say this, the best lesson Elder Gonzalez and I have taught here at the MTC!  The Spirit was just as strong as it was on Monday and he really enjoyed our lesson and kept asking for more. At the end he said that he has noticed a change in us, between our first lesson and now, and more importantly, he's noticed a change in himself!  

3.  We are also teaching our teachers, who are acting as investigators they taught on their missions, and those lessons have been going well too!  We taught Hermano Barrett, who is acting at Oscar, and he has been one of our best investigators.  He's been receptive and willing to read and pray to know these things we are teaching him are true.  We were teaching him this week and the lesson was going great!  Scriptures were being used, personal experiences were being brought up, and our testimonies were being shared!  One of our best lessons...basically this entire week has been a week of amazing lessons.  After our lesson with him, he came up to us and told us that our lesson was great and our personal experiences really helped him understand the concept and that our lesson was great!  ....How's bout y'all come at us!!  Like fo real, we are on fire!  

4.  DEVOTIONAL!  So normally when you give the prayers are devotional you sit up on the stand and do everything like a normal church meeting.  Not this week.  There were rumors flying around this place, remember that I said people talk around here, and we heard that there was a big named speaker coming to speak to us because this Tuesday was the MTC Presidency's last devotional.  We were sort of worried but it's fine...who would be coming to speak to us in the middle of January?  Then on Tuesday morning during service, some kids come in and say "There are three seventies and a General Authority already here!"  WHAAAAAT?!  I hauled some butt to gym to find Hermana Stanger, the sister who was praying with me, and we were freaking out.  We show up to devotional to get seated early and we are sitting on the floor in front of the stage because THERE WERE EIGHT SEVENTIES AND A GENERAL AUTHORITY sitting on the stand that night!  Excuse me....I didn't agree to that!  I was FREAKING out!  Like sweat stains for straight days.  We are sitting there singing out prelude music when Russell M. Nelson walks in and I almost died. So I got up and said the opening prayer with my hands shaking and it was magical.  We were so nervous but everyone in our branch told us we did wonderfully.  Can you believe that?  Can you even believe that happened to me?!  What is my life?!  It was so awesome!  Oh!  I almost forgot!  This MTC devotional was being broadcast to all the other MTC's around the world.  Just to add on some much needed pressure!  

5.  On Wednesday we got to host the new missionaries and it was awesome!  It was freaking frio our there so we all huddled together in one mass as they pulled up.  I only hosted one missionary and he was from Sandy and was going to Canada.  He got out of the car and I got his bags and he turns around and looks at his entire family, who all got out of the car, and walks away.  I didn't know what to do!  I ran after him and they got into the car and drove away...odd, I know.  Just wait.  So I'm all excited and talking with this kid, asking him questions and such, and telling him about me and my mission.  This kid didn't say one full sentence to me.  I would ask him questions and he would say "yes" or "no" or "okay".  So I quickly dropped him off and welcomed his nervous took us to the MTC!  Elder Gonzalez and I were hot chocolate runners to all the elderly traffic directors in the parking lot across the street.  They were the funniest guys I've met!  One of them says to me "Now you walked all the way up here with this open cup of hot chocolate and managed to not spill it all over you or the ground.  If that's not a testament to how you're drug free, then I don't know what is!"  Seriously.  These words were spoken to me.  And I love that man.  

6.  After hosting we had the opportunity to have the new Colombian MTC President and his sweet wife come and speak to our district.  They came and spoke to us about our purpose and we were helping them with their "Welcome to the MTC" seminar thing that everyone goes through on their first day.  It was an awesome experience.  What made it so amazing?  They spoke in English...the entire time!!  It was great.  But seriously, it was so cool to hear from them and be able to talk with them.  They were really nice people! 

What a crazy week, RIGHT?!  Along with these nut-ball experiences, there have been some unbreakable vows made between some of us.  In case some are unclear, in Harry Potter if one breaks an unbreakable vow, one dies...so these promises are being kept!  On January 6, 2017, Elder's Gonzalez, Sandall, and I are meeting in Rexburg as a reunion of sorts.  Then in July of 2017, Hermana Walfield, Elder Gonzalez, me, and others are going to Spain.  By that time we will be fluent Spanish speakers and will travel the world speaking our new language!  That's the type of friendship we all have.  We want to do things with each other when we get back!  So fun!  

I leave the MTC in ten days.  Let's all take a moment to breathe because I really need one!  Ten days!?!  What is that?  C'mon!  There's no way...gah!  The Spanish is getting much better but man...ten days makes me freak out!  But I know it's going to be awesome and I can't wait for it!  

I love the work we are doing!  I love watching the hearts and minds of our investigators change and watching them realize that what we are teaching them is true!  I love you all and can't wait to hear back from you!  

Stay golden my peeps!

Love,

Elder Keith

Elders and Hermana's in the district

At the temple! 

Elder Keith with his companion and Jorge, the investigator they have been teaching!

Tanner and Taylor! One of his roommates from college.  He will be serving in New Jersey. Fist pump!

Well loyal readers, Elder Keith's time at the MTC is coming to an end.  Time is just moving on by. Next week he will be on his way to Oregon.  I will be sure to update his address as soon as I have it! I hope everyone has been enjoying reading about his progress!  He is excited and motivated, how awesome! 

Until next time!