Tale of an Elder in Angelo

This is the Tale of an Elder in Angelo.

So this week was incredible. I don’t think I have ever worked harder or been more tired in my entire life. But it’s weird, I think that this week I have learned more than I have in a long time.

So there is this couple we found the other day and started teaching them. They are incredible. We taught them about the restoration of the gospel, then we proceeded to answer every question about religion, the afterlife, heavens, purpose of everything and many many more. It was awesome because we could answer them. The answer of “what is our purpose here on this earth”… to anyone who doesn't know is to have joy. To find the most lasting and loving joy that you can. So essentially we are here to be happy :). So let’s stop worrying about all the haters out there and just feel the love from our family and from our God. So now they are preparing for baptism...

Also we are teaching another family. They are so rad. But we found them the other day and they had similar questions as our other investigators, with the exception that she did not believe there is a God. Look at that last statement... it is past tense :) haha There is a God. Their family wants to be together forever more than anything, even if they ask..."are you sure you want to do this?" “I mean you are going to be stuck with me forever.” The principle is simple, but it means the world to me.

This week is Thanksgiving......It is my last Thanksgiving as a full time representative of my greatest friend, hero, and savior, Jesus Christ..... It’s bittersweet. But I am out here to show him how grateful I am for him. That is my reason for my service. Jesus is the Christ. He knows you. He knows everything about you. As he was suffering in the Garden he saw you. He lived his perfect life for me and he gave his perfect life for me. So I hope if you don't get anything else out of this letter I hope that you truly know that Christ knows you. And I challenge all of you everyone to know him. Because that is the only way I have found that purpose of life I was talking about before.

I am so thankful for everyone in my family. God let us be with our family for a reason. These people around you, though they are far from perfect, were sent to you be with you. Out of the 80 billion people who have lived on this earth you got them. So I am going to try to be a better brother and a better friend, son, cousin, acquaintance, cause I know whoever you are, you’re in my life for a reason and I am so grateful for you. I really hope you understand I am so thankful for everyone I know, I really am... because of you I have found my gratitude. I have found my joy. Even if I wasn't the missionary who got a shout out from Jabari Parker. (There was social media pic and comments from Parker with missionaries) I am still a lucky guy:).

And to wrap it up, the 2nd family I was talking about is now preparing for baptism to be together forever. So ya, I love you guys so much. Feel free any of you to write me. I would love it!

Stay sweet world…

Love elder Keeg

PS. Also me and Elder Severson wrote a song, but I cannot get the video to upload, so here are a couple pics to show you how legendary it was haha.   

A week of "healing"...

2/3rds of the way there and living on a prayer.

It has finally hit the fan, I am officially in the last 3rd of the race and I am freaken out.

So this week me and Dr. Elder Severson hit San Angelo with some force. No joke, so this area hasn't even seen a new investigator in like 8 months now and we are making this place come alive once again. Cause we are men of God.

We also build a ramp this week which was sweet, so I can now add that to the list of things I have built on my mission. I really think I am going to build my own house when I get home that would be rad.

So this week something spiritual that happened…We had Zone conference this week and our mission president talked a lot about healing in the scriptures. So I really dug into that in the four gospels and I got a lot of cool insight about it. If anyone wants to hear about it send me a letter and I will tell you haha, but we realized that we are sent here on missions not only to teach and to preach, but also to use the principles that we know and to heal those whom we teach. So this week we used that. We prayed not to find people for us to teach and to share our message with, but to send us people who He wants us to heal. Send us to His children who truly need us and need to feel His loving hand. So we set out and we found 6 new people who needed to be healed, whether it be from a break up, drug addiction, or even spiritually broken. The Lord sent us to those people who needed us. And I learned so much about the healing power of our message man. No matter who you are or what you are going through this doctrine of Christ can save and heal you. I didn't really know that I was broken.....Until I knew how to fix myself. So it was a really rad week.

Oh ya, and some people let us do service for them by cleaning off their fans but they said we had to wear costumes so this is what we came up with (see photo) haha.

Love you guys be safe out there.

love elder c

Playing Fugitive to find those hard to find...

I have found my way home. San Angelo what a place. I am currently writing you this email in the very same library, at the exact same computer that I sent my very first email in the mission field. It feels kinda weird, but cool at the same time to see the person I have become in the last year and quarter. It is everything that I remembered it to be and everything I could imagine it to be. My new companion is Elder Severson from Riverton, Utah. He is cool.

It was terrible saying goodbye to Portales and all of the love there and its weird like not knowing where I am at all times. In Portales it’s so small that I always knew where I was. In San Angelo it is so big I feel claustrophobic, which is ridiculous because I come from a city that is ten times this size. But I am trippin haha.

When I arrived here in San Angelo we had no one we were teaching and no potential which is pretty normal for here, haha it’s good to be home, but we went so hard this week. To make finding more fun Elder Severson came up with the coolest way. So there is no one outside ever in West Texas and that is a fact, so we play fugitive. We drive around till we see someone outside and when we see them we hurry and hide the car and run out till we catch the person haha. Its sweet they have no idea what’s coming. But it works so much more. We talk to 10 times as many people a day. Its rad. We also listen to Frozen and Hannah Montana to get pumped up for it haha. It’s sweet. And from doing that, we have started teaching 4 new people including a lady who just got out of prison after like 30 years and she is so ready to hear the gospel and come to church it is a blessing. So it’s okay to have fun and be a missionary. God will bless you. It’s how it’s supposed to be :). But ya, just be yourself.

Well that's pretty much the life down here right now. I have a few pics this week for a small email, but I was just kinda getting in the groove of things down here in the south. I have gone from the Wild West with cool cowboys and sweet loving people, back to the very middle of Texas in the South. I love a challenge.

Be safe out there, remember who you are and what you stand for…

Love elder keeg

                                                   

                                                             

Goodbye to New Mexico....returning to the place of my birth...San Angelo

New Mexico - Not really new, Not really Mexico…

Well I am finally saying goodbye to the blessed area of Portales, New Mexico and I am expanding my horizons by returning to the place of my birth as a missionary, San Angelo. My new address if anyone wanted to send anything is:
1925 Raney St. #52, San Angelo, Texas 76901.

It’s weird to go back there now because exactly a year ago I was leaving there. I guess the Lord has a lot more in store for me than I thought. I’m kinda scared though, cause I’ve been in this po-dunk town for the past six months. It’s all I know. A big city is going to make me claustrophobic and I won’t know everyone in towns name, and how many dogs they have, where their kids go to school or what their favorite color football team is, or what time of day they will be home, or what car they drive, where they work.... the list of me being a hard core stalker goes on and on and it kinda freaks me out haha.

Elder Hammond my companion is going home on Wednesday and that has been a trip haha. There has been a lot of tears in our apartment these past couple of days and it has been a different experience.

This week was Halloween and I was so so so stoked to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. Then when it had turned 10 o’clock and not a single one stopped by, I began to ponder on the why they didn’t come? Then it dawned on me that we live in the sketchiest place in town by far and there is no way I would want my kids to go trick-or- treating here, so ya that was a bummer too. But on the bright side I was Superman for Halloween. 

This week also Elder Pino from the Quorum of the 70 came and spoke to us and that was incredible. He spoke in Spanish because he knows very little English, but even though someone else was his mouthpiece, you could totally feel his spirit and his love, it is incredible. I hope people can feel even a portion of what I felt around him when they are around me. 

I am actually pretty sad I am leaving Portales, it has made me appreciate the little things in life so much more than I ever have. I truly believe this is the best mission for me in the world. The experiences I have had here I could learn absolutely nowhere else. I wasn’t sent to a foreign impoverished country because the lessons I need to learn are not there for me. Portales has changed me as a person and has shown me who I want to become and what I am capable of becoming. There is no way in a millions years I would ever ever ever want to, or think about living in Portales, New Mexico, but the Lord knows I needed to be here and out of everywhere in the world, I was in this tiny tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes we have to go to the depths of the earth to find out who we truly are. This week has been a keeper I’m not going to lie. I have loved it and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I love you all be safe out there 

Love elder keegan