The Tossing of the Chickens

Chicken Tossing was pretty much awesome! I tell you there are few things more exciting than tossing a crate filled with 100 chicks, and then as they're recovering from the throw, tossing 100 more on top of them. We had some fun. Now, nobody needs to go feeling bad for these chicks. Because they're sold to whole foods, they need to be treated humanely. These Chickens will have playgrounds, flowers for decoration, and an outside recreation area. All so people can cook them and eat them, knowing that the chicken their eating lived a happy and full life. I would include pictures, except my memory card reader no longer wants to work, and using my camera is uber slow. And sad to say, I didn't get any pictures of me Juggling the chicks, which was pretty awesome.

I feel like this area contains some of the flakiest investigators I've ever had in my mission. It seems like almost everyone we go to stop by is busy doing something or other, even when we had set appointments. And other investigators wont commit to any specific appointment, but tell us we can only stop by on one certain day of the week, and that they may or may not be available that day, we just have to stop by and find out. Its incredibly frustrating, as some of these people we drive 15-20 minutes just to get to their house. However, I don't get the privilege of choosing my situation, just taking what the lord gives to me and doing to the best of my ability. Luckily, he's usually pretty good at determining what is best for me, and what isn't. All I have to do is listen.

It really comes down to an analogy that Bishop Meyers, the Bishop of Caruthers Ward, likes to give. Sometimes in missionary work we're an Ammon, and sometimes we're and Aaron. Ammon was given quite good fortune; found many opportunities for service, was given a place to live and even offered a princess to wife (which he denied). He performed miracles, and converted thousands. Aaron, on the other hand, was almost immediately thrown into prison, and treated horribly for a long time before Ammon could come and free him. Both were great men, and both preformed the tasks that were given them to the best of their ability. Sometimes we get put in cruddy situations, but that isn't what determines how succesful, happy, or even godlike that we are. Its what we do with the things that we are given.

I love and miss you all!

-- Elder Keenan Monnett

The Thriving Metropolis of Caruthers.

I live on a Chicken Farm.

I never thought I'd be able to say that, but there it is. I live on a chicken farm in the middle of nowhere. I suppose I'll backtrack a bit. So as many of you might remember, I was transferred to Caruthers Ward. Well, upon arival, I realized that I don't live anywhere really near the actual town of Caruthers, but I live with a Member, on a Chicken farm, somwhere between Caruthers and Selma. Our "apartment" is an attic above a garage that has been "finished". Its about 240 square feet total. I guess you could call it a Studio apartment, if that. The refrigerator is next to my bed. We can't run the air conditioning and the microwave at the same time, or we'll blow a circuit. We can't really run anything and the air conditioner at the same time. We cover a large chunk of the country. The two biggest towns in our area are Caruthers and Riverdale, which have about 2500 people each. Then theres a handful of nowhere towns in-between. Basically, we're never on bikes, because it just wouldn't be practical. Of course, you won't hear me complaining about that part.

On service project I am quite excited about is Chick tossing! The member who's chicken farm we live on is getting a shipment of 146,000 chicks who will eventually become food this wednesday! He needs help putting them in! I've been told that it consists of Taking a box of about 100 chicks, and then tossing them out of the box, into a pile. Rinse and Repeat. I'm pretty much pumped for it, and I will deffinitely be taking some pictures, that I will be forced to share with everyone else. So be looking for those.

As far as spiritual work in Caruthers ward goes, well, we're working on that. This area seems to be the core of flakey investigators. I've never had so many cancelled apointments. We'd rely more heavily on the ward, but theres only about 60 or 70 active members. That's counting all of the kids and babies and such. I'm certainly not used to the small ward environment. Last I heard my home ward was just about busting at the seams.

Depsite all the things that seem like they might be setbacks, I'm actually really enjoying this area. It could very easily be my last area in the mission, so I'm glad that is the case. I could finish here and be very happy. However, I will do my best to make sure it gets even better (cause I certianly wouldn't mind another baptism or two before the end).

I love and miss you all!

-- Elder Keenan Monnett

Breaking up is haaard tooo do!

So, as my picture shows, I've been transferred, made an assistant, and with the comes the perks of a new car and a new companion. Kidding! I couldn't resist. The picture was sombody elses idea, though I willfully consented. It looks so apostate. I love it. I did go for a ride in that Viper. Sorry Sandy, I think it might be a slight quicker than your mustang. What blows me away, is that its a 97 viper, but it looks brand new. I have to hand it to Dodge for really capturing the futuristic look back then.

This morning, I tried to attempt the Grand Slam Challenge at Batter Up Pancakes, which entails Eating 10 scrambled eggs, 2 cups of country potatoes, 1 cup of cheese, 4 cups of my choice of toppings, all on top of a 24 oz pancake. Needless to say, I failed miserably, and wasted 36 dollars in the process. I was a little bummed about that one. But I loved the experience, and now I have more experience for when I try again....

I found out on Saturday that I'm being transferred. This not only means the depressing news that I'm leaving the Riverside Ward, which I have come to love so much, but I'm also moving onto my 15th Transfer, with my 15th companion. Now, as to where I'm going, I was originally told that I was being transferred to the Orchardview ward in the Fresno north Stake to be companions with Elder Cox, which I was really excited about, because I've served around Elder Cox before and I really enjoyed him. However, last night I got a call from the Zone Leaders telling me things have changed, and I'm now going to the Caruthers Ward in the Hanford Zone to be with Elder Giesey (Bonus points to those who remember that I've served with him before.). Now, what confuses me is that Elder Giesey and I both go home in January, so its a little Odd that we're together. However, I'm sure president has something planned, and I'll try to go along with that plan. I'll tell you how everything has gone next week.

I love and miss you all!

-- Elder Keenan Monnett

The teaching that is done at home

Hello everyone. Another week has come and gone. Let me tell you a bit about it.

A member and I on a split went by a Convalescence home to visit a Sister who has Alzheimer's. It was a very sad place, but at the same time, I enjoyed being there, cause I just wanted to find some way to help everyone there. Unfortuantely the Sister we went to visit wasn't available, but it felt good just smiling and waving at people. People should do that more often. It feels good to be smiled and waved at.

Learned how to play touch rugby. Thats a fun sport, but it was hard to break yourself out of the football "have to get ahead" mentallity, cause you can't do a forward pass in rugby. It was a pretty fun Game though. I'd like to see a real game played in person. President Gelwix was nice enough to teach us all how to play, and speaking of which, everyone should click Right Here!and see his Mormon.org video and profile!

One short little rant I'd like to go on before I finish. Home teaching. I never realized how much of a problem there is in doing home teaching. I cant say its like this everywhere, but the ward I'm serving in has about a 24% home teaching ratio. It doesn't take much effort, and you're doing a huge service to the people you home teach. It may not seem like a big deal, but If everyone who reads this does there home teaching this month, I can promise you'll be happier for it.

Well, I'm about out of time, but I love and miss you all!

-- Elder Keenan Monnett

Weeding out the Tares

What a week it has been. Where should I begin?

Earlier this week, we decided to go by the house of an inactive member. She was put on a list of people that nobody in the ward knew, and after making plans about 6 times to go see her, my companion and I actually did. Turns out, she's a recent convert. She lived her whole life in Madera, met the missionaries and was baptized. Unfortunately her health took a turn for the worse, and she could no longer live alone. She moved in with her mother, here in Fresno, but she had no way of getting in contact with the Ward here. She had no numbers to call, didn't know much of how the church organization worked, and had no way of getting to church. We knocked on her door, and met her for the first time, and made her day! She was afraid that she wasn't going to ever get to see the church again. It was awesome to be that ray of sunlight in somebodies life.

On Wednesday, we had the chance to go up to the Vineyard with the young men to weed out our rows in order to make picking in a couple weeks a little easier. And that went pretty well (might have gone even better, had it not been for the Deacons....) We had to drop off our weeding clothes at the church, cause we weren't going to have time to go back to the apartment to change before hand. Well, we wanted to keep our clothes in the library cause it was the only room that was locked, so as we went in to change, we decided just to change in the library. As we were changing, I jokingly said to Elder Moore "how bad would it be if somebody walked in here while we were changing?". I told him that I would totally write home about it if the Relief Society President walked in on us. 3 minutes later, we heard the door lock click, and the Relief Society President tried to walk in the door. And now here I am writing home about it. Fortunately, there was a nearby counter for me to dive behind, and my companion, who was dressed, threw himself in front of the door. Gooood times.

The work here continues to roll along. Miracles abound. We have a senior missionary couple who was assigned to our area as "Member Support" missionaries. Looks like the have a senior couple assignment for just about everything nowadays. They are Elder and Sister Jones (Littleton, CO), and they're pretty much amazing. Its like having your grandparents working in the area with you. They spoil you, and give you rides places, and want to do everything they can for you. I hope I don't get fat. Oh, hopefully I wont, cause I started running 2 miles every other day. Go me!

I love and miss you all!

For the Temple is a House of God

Sorry for the surprise everyone, but I am still alive!

We went to the temple today, which is always a pleasure, but they didn't inform us we were going until tuesday, so I didn't get the chance to tell anyone.

This week has been another good week. We've seen our investigator pool almost double! Now we're just working to get these people out to church! It is so amazing seeing how this gospel can bless and change peoples life, their habbits, and even their desires. We truly are blessed to know what we know, and even more blessed to share it with everyone.

Unfortunately today, I'm on what might be the slowest computer in the Universe. Its taken me ages to do what I've done so far in this email, so I'm about out of time. But I love and miss you all Regardless!

Aaaand We're back!!

So, back to a Normal email day.

I realized as I was laying in bed last Monday that I didn't mention anything at all about my new companion. How rude of me. My new companion is Elder Oscar Travis Moore (Rigby, ID), and he is pretty legit. We've been working the area up and down and have been seeing a lot of success for our efforts.

Just the other day, President Gelwix decided to make a surprise visit to our apartment, where he corrected us seemingly with a Sword. It was painful, and I didn't feel that a lot of it was deserved. But we started focusing on the things he suggested improving, and what do you know, we saw miracles! In 1st Nephi 2:16 it says 16And it came to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the ^amysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did ^bvisit me, and did ^csoften my heart that I did ^dbelieve all the words which had been spoken by my ^efather; wherefore, I did not ^frebel against him like unto my brothers.

It shows us that Nephi didn't simply believe everything Lehi said from the start, and it may have been hard for him, but he humbled himself and did what he needed to to find out if it was true. Something that Laman and Lemuel never did. Sometimes, the lord may ask us to do things, through the spirit, or our bishops, or other leaders we might have, and we don't think it is right. It doesn't seem like the most effective thing we could be doing, but when we listen, we see the blessings that obedience brings. So listen to the lord, he will always bless you!

I love and miss you all.

-- Elder Keenan Monnett

Where did the time go?

I don't know, but I'm about all out of it. We made our trip to Yosemite today! I think I failed to mention I was doing that Last week, but that's what we did! It was beautiful, as it always is, and this marks my 3rd time going. Unfortunately, it makes p-day super rushed, which is why this is about the shortest letter ever.

I love and miss you all!

-- Elder Keenan Monnett