Broken Refrigerators and new Mission Presidents

As you can tell by the subject, it has been an exciting week. This morning, as I was eating my bowl of cereal, I noted that my milk was a tad warmer than milk should be. We checked, and found out that on full blast, our fridge could only go as low as 40 degrees, and on normal it would get as high as 55. So in a hurry, we moved all of our food to the church fridge (fingers crossed that it's still there when we go to pick it up). Not quite sure what's wrong with it, but the apartment staff promised we'd have a new one by tomorrow, so that's exciting.

But even more exciting than that is the announcement of who our new mission president is going to be this July. We got a call out (a voice message) from President Gonzalez telling us that our new mission president is going to be Larry Gillwick, and went on to say:

"some of you may have heard of Larry Gillwick. He coached the highly successful Highland Rugby team for 37 years, and the movie 'Forever Strong' is based on him and his efforts",

Ironically, my companion and I had just been talking that morning about how we weren't sure anyone could fill the shoes of President Gonzalez and the great work that he has done. Now we're getting Larry Gillwick, who was depicted in the movie 'Forever Strong'. I think some exciting things are going to happen in this mission, or should I say, continue to happen.

Other than those exciting things, we've been having delightfully spring-like weather, and very little rain. Maybe California weather isn't so bad after all. Just kidding, talk to me in 3 months.

I love and miss you all!
-- Elder Keenan Monnett

Sanger!

Here I am, sitting in the small town of Sanger, which is just east of Fresno, emailing home. It has been an odd series of events that have led up to this moment, and I'll cover some of them now. When I had my interview with president, he informed that I would be transferring to Sanger, living with the zone leaders, and covering English work. I'm glad that he told me that, because if he hadn't, I wouldn't have found out till I got to Sanger. For some reason or another, these transfers have been horribly unorganized. One missionary didn't even know that he was going to be a District Leader until the day he was supposed to start.

Currently I am living with the Zone Leaders, who cover the spanish work in Sanger, with my companion, Elder Giesey (Florence, Kentucky). Sanger is quite a small town, and the population is largely Hispanic. The only large Grocery store in town is Super Walmart. The Zone leaders speak spanish, and my companion speaks spanish, so needless to say, soy aprendiendo espanol. The ward has a spanish group, instead of a spanish branch, so that means that the spanish speakers, and english speakers, meet together, and the meetings are translated into spanish. In fact, our Elders quorom meeting was all in spanish... I didn't get much out of it....

But, It's a good town. It sits far enough east of fresno that the Sierra-Nevada's aren't blocked as much by smog, so that's a beautiful sight, and there's a lot of nice country that we ride through around Sanger. Overall, I'd say its a nice town, and that I made out pretty well.

I love and miss you all!

Transfers!

All good things must come to an end. It has been a fun run in the Fig Garden ward, but transfer calls came, and I'm outta here. I have a long road ahead of me, all the way from the Fresno west stake, to the Fresno East Stake, to be with Elder Geisie (I think that's how you spell his name).... or am I? Thinks have been rather confusing in the last 10 minutes or so. For one, when Transfer calls came, they never told me which Area I was going to, and our district leader and zone leaders weren't sure why. Then about 10 minutes ago, the Assistants tracked me down, and told me to call president, who informed me that he wanted to have a "chat" with me, and to call him when I was done emailing... It's sort of like being called to the principals office, or when your parents ask you to come up to there room to talk. Nerves are a little on edge right now. I'm sure it's nothing, but we'll soon find out I suppose.

Other than that, things have been going really great. We went and saw Kathy Bates, who was in a car accidnet. She is awake now, and and we went by to see her not too long ago. She couldn't really talk, but we made her smile with our witty banter and good humor. The work in this area has also really picked up, and I'm sad to leave it, but happy for the next missionary that will get to experience the Fig Garden ward. As for me, who knows? I guess I will soon, and I guess all of you will sometime next week. I love you all!

Elder Keenan Monnett

A Week of Trials

This week has been a week full of very difficult trials. I think it's no coincidence that this week is also one of the better that I've had on my mission.

We'll start with the trials.

On top of what was seemingly, at first, an unproductive week, we got a call on Thursday night that an excommunicated member who we had been teaching quite regularly, whom we had grown rather close to, and who had suddenly become very serious about getting back into church, was involved in a major car accident. She's in critical condition, with a broken neck, and numerous internal injuries. She is unable to speak because they have to keep her sedated in order to keep her from squirming or moving and possibly separating the broken vertebrae. In the next few days, she will have a halo installed, which will keep her head immobilized. The big concern is that when that remove the current immobilizer in order to install the halo, they're afraid that the broken vertebrae will separate, and cause death, or paralysis. In that regard it has been a rough week for us, and I would like to ask everyone to keep her in your prayers. Her name is Kathy Bates, and she could use your help.

However, the lord never lets us experience trials in vain, and has a purpose for all things that we go through. This week was one of the best weeks that we have had since I've been in this area. Out of nowhere we found 3 very prepared people to teach the lessons to. I would gladly experience any of those trials again in order to experience the blessings that came after them, and such should be how we deal with life. Trials aren't always just the devil "trying to bring us down". Trials are necessary to the plan of salvation, and are very important to us progressing. There must needs be an opposition in all things, and sometimes we have to sink lower and lower for the lord to bring us higher.

Today was a wonderful blessing. We had the chance to go to Yosemite national park once more, and it is a land that truly testifies of God. It is one of the most beautiful parts of California, and it alone is a reason why I would want to come here again after my mission. It truly is a beautiful place, and it was nice to have that change of pace.

One last thing. The church has recently overhauled their Mormon.org website. Some of you may have seen it, and some of you not. The church is really taking this seriously. So much so, that every missionary in our mission, and as far as I know, the country, are required to spend 2 hours a week just looking around on the website, and create their own profile. This is something that really has a chance to further missionary work for good. So I want to challenge each of you to create your own profile on Mormon.org. It's really easy, and it could help bring somebody into the church, so what's to lose? And if you'd like to see just how far the church is coming in pushing this, head to boncom.com/mormon to see all of the advertisements.

I love and miss you all!

Elder Keenan Monnett

Respect your Elders (and feed them too!)

Another week, and the blessings keep coming. Elder Robb and I are continuing to take the missionfield by storm. I really am blessed to have such and awesome companion. So exciting changes have been happening. Last sunday, our bishopric in the Fig Garden ward was reorginized, and this last sunday, our stake presidency was reorginized, so everything is new! Another exciting thing about our Stake Conference, was that it was broadcasted, so we got to hear from President Packer, and President Eyering, and they both had some wonderful things to say. President Eyering spoke about Prophets, and how they are still mortal, still fallible, still subject to human emotions, and that we need to recognize that, while still understanding that they are called of God to stand over us, and guide us, and we need to follow them no matter what imperfections that we may percieve. This really hit home for me, as I haven't always been as patient with my leaders as I should be. They are still called of God to stand over me, and to help me and guide me, and that blessings will come from obedience to their instruction, no matter how imperfect they may be. This applies to almost everything in our life, but especially in the church. You may think that your bishop is the biggest idiot in the world, but he has been called of our heavenly father to lead you, so suck it up, and do what he says, because God will bless you for it.

That's all the time I have this week, until next!

I love and miss you all!


Elder Keenan Monnett

Another Week

...and they seem to be going by quicker. But we're not going to think about that. I feel like I have learned quite a few lessons this last week.

My first lesson is to always follow your leaders, even if you don't think they know best, because we are blessed for obedience, and the lord placed them there for a reason. Not that I was guilty of disobedience, but my attitude wasn't always best with my leaders. But it's not about their heart, it's about yours. You can think the person who leads you is the biggest idiot in the world, but you're the one that will pay the price for disobedience and poor attitude, not them.

Second, was follow the spirit, and don't get prideful when it makes you look amazing. I believed this was mentioned in Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk on pride. I had an experience this last week with teaching a lesson. An investigator asked a question, and I gave an answer that was definitely inspired by the spirit, because I didn't know the things I was saying before I started answering. Afterwords, the investigator made a comment on how good the answer that I gave was, and later, my companion too. Staying humble is tricky, because you can't put yourself down, and say "that wasn't me at all, I'm terrible" because God has chosen you for a reason, and it wasn't because you're terrible. But on the flip side, you can't get a big head.

These lessons both seem to fall in line with humility. We have to humbly submit to our leaders. We have to be humble to recieve inspiration, and later, humbly give credit where it is due. All in all, there's not a whole lot we can do without humility.

I love you all!

[SPAM]1/2

Ooops! Missed a week!

But nobody seemed to notice, so I'm just going to pretend it never happened.

Things in Fresno are going quite well. I have a new companion! His name is Elder Robb, from Highland, Utah, which marks my second Utah companion. He seems like a very good missionary in spite of this. The ward has put an entirely new emphasis on Missionary work to start off the new year, and we're really excited about what that is going to bring. Unfortunately we did not meet our goal of 6 baptisms in the area by the end of December, but we plan on accomplishing 12 more in this area for this year. I think it's a good goal. We had a great Christmas, and a good New Year (we got to watch the ball drop in time square for the east coast new year! Good enough for me!).

What is weird about the new year, is this thurday I hit my 1 year mark as a missionary. Half way. As I sit and look back at what the last year has brought, I realize that I have had some regrets. Times when I haven't tried as hard as I could have. Times when I wasn't obedient as I could have been. Luckily, someone made a way that I can take these mistakes, learn from them, and do better. This new year holds exciting prospects of what I can be. I very much look forward to it. I love and miss you all!

Elder Keenan Monnett