I apologize in advance that this will be short, as is my time. Life in Salida continues! I guess the biggest highlight of my week, is that, the family I mentioned we committed to baptism, gave us a thank you card yesterday for helping us find the Gospel and build their faith. I have never seen anyone so grateful for missionary work. It truly gives me a greater appreciation for what it is I'm doing. Other than that not much is new.
Its getting steadily warmer. In the 80's now, and I'm told its only supposed to get warmer and warmer till it hits its peak in July or August. The average summer day is supposed to be around 110. Yuck. I'm sure I'll survive.
On a real quick note, everyone should send my Mother a happy birthday email. Her birthday is on Wednesday, and she's going to be 50! Isn't that old!? Just kidding, she's still got half her life to live. Its all downhill from here I'm told. Love you Mom. Her email is liz428@earthlink.net. Make her feel special, cause she is.
GGG Everyone! (Gitchee Gitchee Goo (means that I love you))
Elder Keenan Monnett
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
News from Fresno
It has been a rather crazy week! Transfer calls came and Elder Sheppard is... not leaving? Apparently he was extended for half a transfer (3 weeks). So he'll stay my companion for another 3 weeks, which is good, because theres still so much I can learn from him. However, upon asking the Assistants to the President who would be my companion when Elder Sheppard leaves (in the middle of the transfer, when everyone else already has their companions) they replied "we don't know". So, I may be companionless in 3 weeks? That may be lonely.
I've had some fun moments this week. On an exchange, my district leader, Elder Killinger, and I, biked 3 miles to contact a referal, only to find that the referal didn't exist. So we decided to knock some doors on the way back so it wouldn't be a wasted trip, and we found a girl named Crystal, who said that missionaries had been at her house only an hour before. We assumed she meant Jehovah's Witnesses or anything of the like, but she said they were on bikes, wearing white shirts and ties, and had nametags! Weird! We decided it was 2 of the 3 Nephites (the third one was on splits with John.)
But the weirdest things happened on Sunday! That is 1. When we got our transfer calls, and found out Elder Sheppard is staying. 2. I ran into my trainer, Elder Asay! I missed that guy. and 3. I gave somebody the Aaronic priesthood! Something I had never done before. In fact I can see him here at the library! I'm going to have to go say Hi after I finish writing this. But that was really exciting! But the highlight of my Monday so far, is 5 hours ago my companion and I committed a Family to baptism! They are amazingly open, and want to know as much as they can about the Restored Gospel here on the earth today (and so should all of you).
Anyway, guess what? Chicken Butt! I heard from a lot of people that I haven't heard from in forever, this week! That was really exciting! Thank you Mitch, Nathan, and Canada! Everyone else, shame for not writing. Sorry this letter has been all over the place, I have a bit more energy then I usually do when writing this. But! I love you all.
Elder Keenan Monnett
I've had some fun moments this week. On an exchange, my district leader, Elder Killinger, and I, biked 3 miles to contact a referal, only to find that the referal didn't exist. So we decided to knock some doors on the way back so it wouldn't be a wasted trip, and we found a girl named Crystal, who said that missionaries had been at her house only an hour before. We assumed she meant Jehovah's Witnesses or anything of the like, but she said they were on bikes, wearing white shirts and ties, and had nametags! Weird! We decided it was 2 of the 3 Nephites (the third one was on splits with John.)
But the weirdest things happened on Sunday! That is 1. When we got our transfer calls, and found out Elder Sheppard is staying. 2. I ran into my trainer, Elder Asay! I missed that guy. and 3. I gave somebody the Aaronic priesthood! Something I had never done before. In fact I can see him here at the library! I'm going to have to go say Hi after I finish writing this. But that was really exciting! But the highlight of my Monday so far, is 5 hours ago my companion and I committed a Family to baptism! They are amazingly open, and want to know as much as they can about the Restored Gospel here on the earth today (and so should all of you).
Anyway, guess what? Chicken Butt! I heard from a lot of people that I haven't heard from in forever, this week! That was really exciting! Thank you Mitch, Nathan, and Canada! Everyone else, shame for not writing. Sorry this letter has been all over the place, I have a bit more energy then I usually do when writing this. But! I love you all.
Elder Keenan Monnett
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
This will be short. . .
Another week, and another baptism... sort of... the details are much too messy to get into, but I'm counting it as mine anyway. Josh Forsberg finally got baptized! And this coming Sunday he will be confirmed a member of the Church by my companion.
Life here in Salida has been interesting so far. People are generally uncooperative and disinterested, but I've come up with some witty and though provoking responses for those people. Some of my favorite questions to ask were asked by Jesus himself, so that makes it fun, especially when people don't recognize it. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say they believe things they're really not supposed to believe yet. Like when you ask them if they know that they can be together for eternity with their family and they say "yes, I believe that" Then you ask "how?" and they'll think and rattle off primary answers like "be a good person, go to church, that kind of stuff". Then we try to share that the sealing power has been restored to the earth, and that's usually when they say they're not interested. Drives me nuts!
Other than that, not much is new. Elder Sheppard only has a week and a half left to go on his mission, and its stressing him out! Stressed out Samoans are fun! Thanks for your letters and support,
I love you all
Elder Keenan Monnett
Life here in Salida has been interesting so far. People are generally uncooperative and disinterested, but I've come up with some witty and though provoking responses for those people. Some of my favorite questions to ask were asked by Jesus himself, so that makes it fun, especially when people don't recognize it. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say they believe things they're really not supposed to believe yet. Like when you ask them if they know that they can be together for eternity with their family and they say "yes, I believe that" Then you ask "how?" and they'll think and rattle off primary answers like "be a good person, go to church, that kind of stuff". Then we try to share that the sealing power has been restored to the earth, and that's usually when they say they're not interested. Drives me nuts!
Other than that, not much is new. Elder Sheppard only has a week and a half left to go on his mission, and its stressing him out! Stressed out Samoans are fun! Thanks for your letters and support,
I love you all
Elder Keenan Monnett
Monday, April 5, 2010
Post Easter Greetings from California!
Easter festivities are over and done with, and OH what an Easter it was. Not much as far as baptizing has gone on in the last week, but I appreciated Conference more over these last couple days than I ever have before in my life, so that's a good thing.
Life with Elder Sheppard continues to be a fast paced one. He's coming up on the end of his mission (3 weeks!), and there are two ways that missionaries react to coming up on the end of their mission. 1. They get "trunky". They recognize that the end is near, and therefore they don't try quite as hard. Their minds are on things back home, and not on things of the mission. Or 2. They shift up a gear. They recognize that the end is near, and feel that they haven't done the best they can yet, so they try suuuuper hard to the best of there ability to do everything they possibly can, feeling like their mission won't be a success if they don't. While this is very much preferable to becoming "trunky", it does start to stress you out a tad. Not that I'm complaining, I just miss lunch a little bit.
So, I've decided that one of my favorite moments from General Conference (not counting the Priesthood session, cause I missed that one....) was Wilford W. Anderson's talk on faith: "The true source of hope is faith. Faith in the lord Jesus Christ and his atonement. The one true foundation we should build our lives upon." We all need to have faith. Without faith, how could we ever make it through this life, much less the next? But he goes on to say "True faith Requires action." To believe is simply not enough. If we say we believe, but we do not act, we do NOT have faith. We must act upon that faith if we are to receive the blessings that our father in heaven has promised us. By not acting upon that faith we deny the blessings he has promised us, and we deny the Atonement. If we are to have faith, we are to repent daily! Even for the smallest things like "I called someone a loser". Once we have taken the steps to ensure our behavior reflects that of Christ THEN we have faith. I encourage each and everyone of you to exercise your faith. Bear your testimony to at least one person every day. Stop doing the things that you know are wrong. Repent, and return unto Christ.
Finally, on a mostly unrelated note. I decorated Easter eggs this Easter! I haven't done that in forever! Then after decorating them, my companion asked if he could eat them! Silly Samoan. So he stuck them in the microwave. And guess what? It exploded! It was so cool! I'll include some pictures. One last item of business. I'm not sure if emails sent to keebemon@myldsmail.net are still getting to me. I think they are, but just to be safe, send them to keenan.monnett@myldsmail.net as well.
I love you all!
Elder Keenan Monnett
Life with Elder Sheppard continues to be a fast paced one. He's coming up on the end of his mission (3 weeks!), and there are two ways that missionaries react to coming up on the end of their mission. 1. They get "trunky". They recognize that the end is near, and therefore they don't try quite as hard. Their minds are on things back home, and not on things of the mission. Or 2. They shift up a gear. They recognize that the end is near, and feel that they haven't done the best they can yet, so they try suuuuper hard to the best of there ability to do everything they possibly can, feeling like their mission won't be a success if they don't. While this is very much preferable to becoming "trunky", it does start to stress you out a tad. Not that I'm complaining, I just miss lunch a little bit.
So, I've decided that one of my favorite moments from General Conference (not counting the Priesthood session, cause I missed that one....) was Wilford W. Anderson's talk on faith: "The true source of hope is faith. Faith in the lord Jesus Christ and his atonement. The one true foundation we should build our lives upon." We all need to have faith. Without faith, how could we ever make it through this life, much less the next? But he goes on to say "True faith Requires action." To believe is simply not enough. If we say we believe, but we do not act, we do NOT have faith. We must act upon that faith if we are to receive the blessings that our father in heaven has promised us. By not acting upon that faith we deny the blessings he has promised us, and we deny the Atonement. If we are to have faith, we are to repent daily! Even for the smallest things like "I called someone a loser". Once we have taken the steps to ensure our behavior reflects that of Christ THEN we have faith. I encourage each and everyone of you to exercise your faith. Bear your testimony to at least one person every day. Stop doing the things that you know are wrong. Repent, and return unto Christ.
Finally, on a mostly unrelated note. I decorated Easter eggs this Easter! I haven't done that in forever! Then after decorating them, my companion asked if he could eat them! Silly Samoan. So he stuck them in the microwave. And guess what? It exploded! It was so cool! I'll include some pictures. One last item of business. I'm not sure if emails sent to keebemon@myldsmail.net are still getting to me. I think they are, but just to be safe, send them to keenan.monnett@myldsmail.net as well.
I love you all!
Elder Keenan Monnett
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