Getting cold feet and being humbled

Buenas!  Oh my gosh we had the most embarrassing baptism this week.  So, Hermanita Abi was baptized.  She’s our convert Argi’s sister.  She likes going to church and to Primary and everything!  So we taught her all the lessons.  She told us she wanted to be baptized!  Abi is way cute but so shy with new people.  She will not say or do anything in front of anyone new.  She’s 9 and way sassy (this word does not exist in Spanish and it’s really quite a bummer).  We were a little worried about what was going to happen when the time came for her to actually be baptized.  But I didn’t really think about it too much - I just prayed a million times that everything would turn out okay.  

So the day came.  On Saturday, we all took the bus to the church together and I was surprised at how well everything was going.  Usually on baptism days we have soooo many problems.   Abi seemed excited.  But as we arrived at the church Abi started to get nervous.  We went inside and saw the font and she really started freaking out a little bit.  She was just super nervous about eveything - that her dress was going to float up - that she was going to drown - that the water was going to be cold.

When the time came for her to actually be baptized she started saying, “I don’t want to, I don’t want to!”  And we legit had to talk to her for like 10 minutes haha.  At one point we had to start chanting “Abi!  Abi!  Abi!  Abi!”

At last she decided to do it and she stepped in the water and two of her fears became a reality.  The water was way cold and her dress kept floating up.  After like 5 minutes of coaxing from the side of the font, she finally decided to do it!  So Elder Tingey baptized her.  But her foot came up out of the water, so they had to do it again!  She almost refused to do it again but finally agreed.  This time it was okay but she choked a little bit in the water and cried after.

She really did want to get baptized but didn’t actually want to physically do it.  Hermana Tenorio and I were very concerned that everyone was going to think we forced her to do it, but that so wasn’t the case!

Abi really is a good girl, who wants to do what’s right!  When we asked her why she wanted to be baptized she told us that she wanted to follow Jesus’ example.  My heart melted!  Little kids’ desires to follow the example of our Savior Jesus Christ as so pure!  In the mission, I really have come to understand why Christ loved little children so much.  Their spirits are so much closer to heaven than ours :).  Even though her baptism was stressful, I love Abi so much!!!

This week I got a sty in my eye so I had to use my glasses and not wear any eye makeup for one day.  It was so embarrassing because everyone told me that I looked different (and weird).  Usually people tell me I look pretty haha but instead they asked me what the heck happened to me.  It really is amazing the wonders that a black line across the eyelid can do.  The next day my eye felt better so I wore make up and looked normal again :)

This week in my personal study of the Book of Mormon I read about the cycle of pride among the Nephites.  Basically the Nephites were righteous, received blessings, became rich, got prideful, turned wicked, were condemned by Heavenly Father, became humble and turned righteous again.  The cycle goes on and on in the Book of Mormon!  And I was thinking about how I’ve seen that same cycle in the mission, especially this week.

Things have been going really well in our area.   The people generally receive us and are moderately interested.  And when things are going well, it’s so easy to get a little prideful - and a little lazy!  So we’ve had it easy for a little bit.  But Heavenly Father decided to humble us!  We went to go contact in a part of our area we usually don’t go to, and literally talked to everyone (who would open their door) and they all said no!  All morning all we heard was NO!  And working in the morning is so hard because the sun is so hot and legit sucks all the energy out of you.  The next day was exactly the same!  A morning of ridiculous sun and pure “no”s.  We were kinda sad!  But the truth is we needed a little bit of humbling.  It’s easy to forget the source of all that is good in this world when things are going well!

So my invitation for this letter is that we won’t let ourselves get lazy in thanking our Father in Heaven for His help, His mercy and His grace in the bad times and the good ones too :)

Love,

Hermana Keeler

Celebrating in Campeche

Buenas!!!! 

So we had changes and my companion and I are staying in the same area! It's a little bittersweet because I really wanted to train.. but I guess there's something that we need to finish together in this area. 

This week was really great. Here everyone celebrates King's Day. It's where the 3 wise men come to your house to leave gifts! Apparently it's a really big deal here! Santa Claus really doesn't leave giftsat Christmas. It's kind of sad but all the kids are more excited for King's Day than Christmas :( A King's Day tradition here is la rosca. It's like a huge bread that has little baby Jesus dolls baked inside. Sounds a little weird right? Everyone takes turns cutting a piece of the bread, and if you get a doll, you have to make tamales for everyone on February 2nd. I got a doll!
SO RANDOM RIGHT? But I love it. The bread was really good too. 

This week we had stake conference! I really liked one of the talks. Presidente Luviano (he's the husband of our mission mom so he's kind of like our mission dad) talked about hope. He compared it to a math equation and it was way cool! 

Hope = Faith (Works) + Meeknees + Humility + Charity

He said, "To have hope is a lot more than just to wait" and I LOVED THAT. A lot of the time we want something to happen and we just complain and wait and think and whine and that's so not right!!!! If we really have hope, we'll have faith, and if we really have faith, we'll act! And we need to be meek, humble, and charitable. 

We had really cool experiences teaching the Plan of Salvation. Both of these teenagers that we taught expressed to us their doubts about the purpose of this life, and what the heck is going to happen to us after we die. We asked them if they wanted the answers and they said YES PLEASE. We taught them and they really felt peace knowing that there is a plan. That God is mindful of us and that He is all powerful, all knowing, and above all infinitely loving. That He sent us a Savior to overcome sorrow, sin, and death. 

It was eye opening to see that we have the answers that people are longing for. Share the marvelous Plan of Salvation with others. It will change their life, and help strengthen your faith and testimony of the Restored Gospel. 

I love you all.

Love,

Hermana Keeler

lindsay.keeler@myldsmail.net

Opposition in all things, even delicious food

Buenas!  So, this week was really GREAT!  First off, Argi was baptized!  She’s so cute and has such a strong testimony.  She shared her “story” with everyone and it was so powerful!  She talked about how she wasn’t raised in a religious home and didn’t really have a relationship with God.  But she really has grown so much spiritually!  It’s been so cool to see her process.  She’s the first investigator that I’ve been with for the whole process!  It’s been such a privilege to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord in her life!

Like I always say, this week was full of ups and downs.  We were stressed out of our minds a few times.  I almost cried out of frustration like 6 times, and I also shed 2 tears of happiness :) once during Argi’s testimony and again during the Primary Program this Sunday. ( I really have grown to love little kids in the mission)  But anyway, the best weeks are always the most stressful.  Opposition in all things right? (see 2 Nephi 2:11).

Speaking of oppostion, so the food here has really been against us for the last little while.  But not because it’s making us sick.  Because it’s making us fat.  I’ve gotten used to eating everything with habanero chiles, lime and tortillas.  I love all the food now.  And the people love to feed us!  On Sunday we had three meal appointments.  First we each ate 3 conchita tacos (a delicious meat that everyone in the world must try), then we ate sloppy joes (it’s a long story), spaghetti and lime pie, and then we had mole with chicken.  I was so full I felt like I was going to throw up haha!  I lost a ton of weight in my training but now I feel like I’ve gained it all back :(  WHY MUST THE FOOD BE SO DELICIOUS!?!?  You would think that walking all day in sun would balance it all out, but it doesn’t NI MODOS!

Something that I’ve really come to realize in the last few weeks is that everyone is entitled to exercise their own agency.  We can’t obligate anyone to do anything.  People need to learn to act for themselves.  If we compel them to do things, they are never going to learn or progress.  Even though sometimes we wish we could make our investigators understand, force them to church and keep them hostage there, we can’t because that’s illegal.  No, I’m joking but really sometimes I just want so badly for people to follow trough on their word and keep their commitments like to read or to pray or to go to Church.  So that they can see for themselves the truthfulness of the Gospel.  BUT, God gave us agency and we have to respect that!   Article of Faith 11 clearly states that we have the privilege to worship God how we want and allow others that same privilege!  He trusts us to make our own decisions according to the knowledge that we have .  We as missionaries bring this knowledge to the people, invite them to act, and then let them exercise their free agency.  Exercise your agency today by reading Alma 26 (my fave chapter in the Book of Mormon) or checking out all the cool Christmas videos on www.Mormon.org   I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Keeler

lindsay.keeler@myldsmail.net

Send her your Christmas Wishes!  She will love to hear from you! 

Food Safety and Fun in Campeche

Buenas!  Well this week I wanted to talk a little bit about life in general.  There are lots of things that are waaaaay different - but I’m going to explain just a few of them.

We take the bus everywhere.  Sometimes we take 6 buses in one day.  It’s like second nature to me now.  Hand the driver my 7 pesos and make my way to an empty seat.  At first I scrambled to look for change in my bag as I clutched onto anything that I could grab, so that I wouldn’t fall.  At first it scared me when the drivers drove crazy fast, now I’m ticked when they don’t.

Anyway, lots of people get on the bus and ask for money.  Sometimes they sing or play an instrument.  Sometimes they preach la palabra de Dios.  And sometimes they just straight up ask.  But usually they dress up as clowns and tell jokes!  Some of them are actually really funny!  I really don’t understand sometimes because they all talk in this really weird, high and super Yucatecan accent.  I always feel bad when I don’t give them money (we can’t use the money the Church give us for street performers or beggars, etc.)  But it’s super easy for me to use the excuse that I didn’t understand a word because my Spanish isn’t all that great :)

I realized the other day that I haven’t seen another gringa from the US for 6 whole weeks!  The only gringos I have seen are other Elders or European tourists.  Only French and German people come here for some reason?

Anyway, I’ve learned here that we are like way cautious with all of food in the US.  Here nothing is refrigerated haha.  Who knew eggs don’t need to be in the fridge?  I didn’t.  Also, apparently meat doesn’t need to be either, though I’m still a little skeptical about that.  Everyone buys their meat at little shops or stands.  The animals are usually just hanging on hooks.  The other day I legit just saw 1/4 of a pig.  It was sad :(  Shelbs would have cried.

I still haven’t gotten sick from the meat though... so there must be something that I don’t know???  About a week ago my comp left some yogurt outside the fridge all night, then put it in the fridge in the morning.  When we came home that night, she went to eat it, I told her, “that was out all night!” and she replied, “But it’s been in the refrigerator all day.” She didn’t get sick.  I’m starting to doubt all of the things I thought I knew.

Okay, well that’s the “life” part of this letter.  Things are going well here in Siglo!  Hermana Tenorio and I are going to be together for another cambio :)  I’m way excited.  She’s fun and our area is great!

She didn’t get a chance to finish her letter so she sent me what she wrote about Thanksgiving in her journal...  We will try to not be offended that she didn’t miss us at all haha!  

Well, today is THANKSGIVING!  And to be honest, it was probably the best that I’ve ever had!   I honestly was not sad that I wasn’t with my family.  Everything is so different here (and it’s still so hot) that it didn’t even feel like I was missing out on anything.

Today we had weekly planning and Hma Tenoria laughed at me so hard she spit her water on my face and all of the records.. It was way funny.  I really love her. 

Later, we went to eat with Gustavo and Sara.  They really are an odd couple but they sure are funny.  We ate mole.  I actually wasn’t even sad that I didn’t even eat turkey.

That night we had a correlation meeting in the Church.  It’s always a fun time with everyone, so I was excited.  But I was way excited because Elder Bejar called me and told me he had my package!  They brought it to me in the Church!  I was way happy.  Sister Bejar sent my mom pics and a video of me, so I’m sure that mom loved that.

I went home that night feeling very grateful!  This was probably the most meaningful Thanksgiving I’ve ever had.  Even though I didn’t spend it with my family, I’ve never been so grateful for them!  There’s lots of gratefulness going on here!

Love, 

Hermana Keeler

Feeling like a Mom and Ron Weasley

Buenas!  Well this week was really great and also really sad.  It was sad because we had to stop teaching the family that came to church twice.  The husband didn’t want to continue investigating the church, but the wife did.  And that created problems in the family.  Hermana Mariana wanted us to keep visiting just her but we had to tell her no.  It was really sad.  We all cried.  It’s just not the right time.  She wants so badly to get baptized.  I know it will happen in the future!

But we have some really awesome investigators that are progressing!  This place is full of puros escogidos.  No puedo expresar cuan blanco es este campo.  

Bueno, I want to tell you all a little bit about my companion.  She’s way funny and knows a ton about the Gospel even though she has only been a member for 2 1/2 years.  I’ve learned a lot from her.

Every night after we plan she lays on the floor and usually falls asleep (she sleeps with her eyes slightly open it is really creepy).  So every night I tell her to brush her teeth and put on her pajamas and stuff haha.  Sometimes I feel like her mom!  Haha!  She’s always super confused when she’s tired, so I have to like tell her to do things step by step, it’s hilarious.  And when we pray at night sometimes she falls asleep on her knees haha.  Also, in her personal prayer she’ll just say random words out loud, but then the rest in her head.   She’s way fun.

This week we were talking about the typical dances of her country and she showed me one of them and its was way cool.  She asked me about the typical dances in the US and at first all I could think of was mosh pitting haha.  But them I remembered that we do have a dance this is unique to the US....Square Dancing!   So I attempted to explain it to her and taught her dosedo and aleman left and swing your partner round and round. (I’ve never actually written the words dosedo and aleman left, so I have no idea how they’re spelled haha).  She was a little confused but thought it was cool.  Yay for culture!

So we came home last night and found two HUGE spiders in our house.  We smashed them with the broom and to our horror a million tiny spiders started running out of the big spiders and it was AWFUL!  I felt like Ron Weasley.

Well!  That’s about if for this week.  I love you all!  

Hermana Keeler

I was feeling badly for Lindsay on Thanksgiving, worried that she was sad and missing home.  We went to temple square that night and I actually started crying while we were talking to the sister missionaries!  Just a few minutes later, I received this picture and a video of her from the Bejars.  They are a family from our stake who were in Merida visiting with their son who just returned from the mission!  They delivered her Christmas package in person and were able to bring some love from home.  So thankful for the tender mercies from the Lord that have helped all of us through this experience!  

From their pirate adventures last Pday.

Paying homage to their ward mission leader!!