Goodbye, my Broadheaded friend

Transfer calls are in! Elder Broadhead is being transferred to Porterville 1st ward to be with one of my previous companions, Elder Robb, and his other companion, Elder Florinoui (no idea how to actually spell that). Turns out he's the odd man out in the mission, so he'll be living with the Zone Leaders until they can find him somebody to stay with. My new companions name is Elder Moore, and I don't know too much about him other than he's been out almost 5 months now. This also means I get 6 more months in the Riverside ward, which I won't complain about one bit.

This last few weeks we've really been evaluating not only the area, but ourselves as missionaries, and as Children of God in general. We've looked for ways that we could improve, and this last week had one of the best weeks of the transfer because of it. We don't always recognize how the little things can change our lives until we try them. The Lord revealed through Moroni that we won't recieve a witness until after the trial of our faith. That means that we may not see how doing better on the little things will help change us before we do it, but once we try it, we quickly realize that there is a connection, and we find ourselves improving.

Going into this next transfer will mark the start of my 14th transfer, with only 3 more to go afterwards. It will be over before I know it, and I want to make sure that I go out with a bang. I love and miss you all!

-- Elder Keenan Monnett

This is Rugby

Today, our wonderful mission president, President Larry Gelwix, will be teaching us how to play Rugby. Considering half of our Zones lack of Athletic prowess, and the fact that contact sports aren't allowed to be played by missionaries, this should be quite... interesting. I'll let you know how it goes. Transfers calls are also happening this week, so my next email home will be all about what is happening. Also should be intersting. I've only got four more of these things to go, so I'm hoping it doesn't get too crazy in that time.

We also got another chance to clean the temple again today. You know, people take the temple cleaning assignment a lot more seriously than they take their Ward cleaning assignment. If our Church building were cleaned to even half of the standard that the temples were cleaned to, we'd have some seriously clean ward buildings, whereas now, they're not so much. But, back to the temple, it was great once again be doing something to help keep that house of good looking so beautiful. Never have I done so much cleaning in such High spirits. That is the spirit of Service.

I hope everone is doing well at keeping up a constant scripture study. It is so easy to become complacent in studying the scriptures, especially once you've already made your way through them the first few times, but the blessings that come from them are too many to number. Its hard to recognize what we've lost when we stop reading the scriptures, but once we start back, it because very apparent. In the book of Omni it mentions that the people of Zarahemla, when first discovered, were people who had a lot of wars and contentions, whose language had become corrupted, and it mentions that they had no records, or scriptures. Some might think "well, what difference does that really make." In 1st Nephi 4, when Nephi is getting the plates from Laban, he remembers that the lord told them if they didn't follow the law of moses, they wouldn't prosper in the land. Then he thinks "well, how can we follow the Law of Moses if we don't know the law. That's written on the plates, huh? I can see why we need those now." Thats the importance of scriptures. Follow them, and prosper.

I love and miss you all!

Ohhhh say can you ski?

Cause I can't.

...But they were in Tahoe.

The rest of my 4th of July went great, and it included blowing things up, and a few illegal fireworks. For example: Two pistol petes, plus gatorade bottle, plus duct tape equals large explosion. Don't know if the neighbors appreciated it, but it was pretty awesome. Kind of like a dry ice, or the works bomb for those of you who have done it. That's a federal crime though....so you didn't hear it from me.

On wednesday we had the opportunity to meet our new mission president. All I can say is that I'm super excited to see what the next 6 months holds. He was a way of getting you worked up for work in a way that I suppose only 36 years of coaching Rugby and Football can do. He also met with each of us individually to get a feel for us. It just feels like he genuinely cares. Not that I ever felt that President Gonzalez didn't, but President Gelwix makes you feel like you're his favorite, and I bet he makes everyone feel that way. He also did away with the rule on parts in your hair, saying that "I always thought that was stupid". Oh yeah, we'll get along juuuust fine.

This morning we kicked off our preparation day by assisting in the cleaning of the temple. It was a pretty awesome experience. Bro. Christiansen and I teamed up, and got the best assignment, and that was vacuuming both sealing rooms, the endowment room, and the celestial room. It was an amazing experience. We also learned all about celestial bugs. Little bugs that get hit by the exterminator, and know were it was that they wanted to pass on. There were an awful lot in the celestial room....

I'm looking forward to the next 6 months, and I'm committed to making the best of them. Like president Gelwix told me, there aren't many tomorrows left, so I need to make the best of the ones I do have.

I love and miss you all!

Elder Keenan Monnett

Goodbye Sister Monnett!

That's right, in just a couple of days, my sister mission officially comes to an end, and the sister missionary in me heads home. I'll have to burn a pair of pantyhose or something....

On July 6th, I will have been on a mission for exactly 18 months. I can't believe its gone by as fast as it has, but I do believe that I have said that almost every time I've emailed home and talked about time passing. It definitely means that you can't take any of it for granted. Don't neglect it, don't get too attached. I honestly don't think I'll be one of those missionaries that does not want to go home. I love the mission, and I love the work. I would never want to go home even the slightest bit early, and I would extend if it were asked of me, but I also love my family. It will be sad to leave, but happy, as well.

Happy 4th of July everyone. I hope everyone has or is enjoying the celebration of our Independence day, and I hope that you understand what it truly means to be free, and to celebrate that freedom. There's a great video called "The Freedom Too" that talks about how we should not simply be grateful for our freedom from things, but of our freedom to do things. the video is here, and I think it will help everyone to realize how much they have, and what their freedom means.

The work is progressing slowly, but I trust that it will be coming along. Our new mission president is here and all settled in now. We get to meet him on wednesday. I'm personally excited to see how it goes. I think he'll do a lot of good, and I can't wait to work with him.

Until next time, I love and miss you all!

It's nommy!

Today, I bought Two Half Gallons of Kirkland Ice cream. Its pretty much one of the best brands of ice cream ever. Its rumored to be made by Hagen Das. Anywho, it makes for one happy missionary. And, their half gallons are actually half gallons! Not this 1.5 Quart garbage. I mean, seriously, who shrinks the size of their ice cream, and then makes you pay the same price for it, that's just not right? That's why I'll support Costco, and their delliciously creamy FULL HALF GALLON ice cream.

Anyway, no more digression on Ice cream. The week has been mostly uneventful, in a bad sort of way. It's been an odd adjustment going from "hey, we should go see that person" and then jump in our car to see them, to "hey, we should go see that person. oh wait, they life 4 miles away, and nobody lives around them... maybe we shouldn't..." We saw a hit in our key indicators this last week because of it. But I won't blame it on my situation, I'll simply work the best I can to make the best of my situation. This means we have to do a lot more planning now and who we're going to see and when, and we have to be pretty concious on where they live and where we'll be.

On a higher note, I finished out the month with money LEFT OVER from my msf account. Something that has not happened in a good year, but I decided I was going to be a lot smarter with my money this month, and it paid off! In the form of Ice Cream.....

I love and miss you all!

Bring on the heat!

It's been a late summer so far here in Fresno. We've even seen rain a couple of times in June. But that's all coming to a close, as the projected average high for this week in Fresno is 103. This wouldn't be so bad, if they didn't pull our car last wednesday. Now, I've spent the last year and a half of my mission on a bike, inlcuding last summer, so bike ridding is nothing new for me. But our area is roughly 120 square miles or so, with houses and people spread out between most of it. We've been promised a car, we just have no idea when that will be. But the lord will not let us suffer in vain, and I can't wait to see the blessings that he brings our way.

So far things have been going well. We've really been pouring over the the area, and what we can do to improve it, and things look promising. It wont be without work on our part, but I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty, so to speak. It has been a little bit of a shift going from somebody like Elder Seumanu to Elder Broadhead, as they're virtually different in every way, but things are picking up.

Today we have an odd opportunity to watch the Movie "Forever Strong". Our mission president wants us to watch that movie, as well as all of the Extra Features, so we can better come to know President Gelwix, who gets here next week. It should be quite interesting, but I'm certainly not complaining about having the opportunity to watch a movie not on christmas.

That's about all I have to report on right now, but I promise more next week!

I love and miss you all!

It's about freaking Families!

They are literately the answer to everything! I'm feeling ranty, so before I go into that, we'll take care of announcements first.

Transfer calls have come! Elder Seumanu is leaving me to go out to the mountains, up in Modesto North Stake. My new companion is Elder Broadhead. I don't know too much about it, other than I've met him before in passing, but we'll see how things go. I'm at a point now where I'm no longer concerned about getting along with people, and more just concerned that we'll have something in common. So far, not too bad. But that leads me into my first rant.

I've been on my mission for 12 transfers now. As of Wednesday, I'll be on my 13th one of 17. In 13 transfers, I'll have had 13 companions, and It's starting to be a little frustrating. Just when I start to get to know somebody, I then have to learn how to work with somebody else. Remember, I'm not complaining, just ranting.

My second rant is much more important than my first however. My second rant is about families. You ever had one of those moments where you're thinking about something that you've heard a thousand times, but the 1001st time you think about it, suddenly the importance of it clicks? Well I had one of those moments one night laying in bed. I was thinking about the problems that exist in our society, and how it's continuing to get worse. I mean, just imagine the things that were considered obscene and wrong 50 years ago. Now think of how it might be 50 years from now. It can be a scary thought. So I wondered why this decay was there, why was it getting worse, and what could possibly be done to fix it? Its apparent that the problem with our society is a lack of good morals and ethics that are lacking in society. Ok, so we need to be taught better ethics and morals, but how could we possibly teach that? It wouldn't really be effective to try to teach it in the school primarily. Then it clicked. That kind of stuff has to be taught in the families! Now, this was a real duh moment, because how many times have we been told that fixing families would fix the world, but at this moment it really hit home for me. When we shape and raise our children, we are literately helping to shape the future of society. Now, I believe that the degradation of society has been contributed to by a nasty tool of Satan, and that is Divorce.

Now, I understand that sometimes divorce is unavoidable, but at the same time, not when both parties are giving all they can to making it work. When a divorce happens, it doesn't simply effect you. It doesn't just effect your spouse. It doesn't even only effect your Children, but eventually and inevitably, it effects society as a whole, because when children don't have the example of both parents working in a home, teaching them not only in words but by example as well, it does much more for society than children who don't have that example, it does more for children than friends, or school, or church ever could. We literately shape the future by the example we set for others. Teach your kids good examples, not simply so they can be better people, but so that the world can be a better place.

I'm done.

I love and miss you all!