August 21st 2009

Hey Family, I hope that you are doing well. I am doing great here. I got a dear elder from grandma and Marcie this week that was great. Today we didn't go to the temple because one of my companions, Elder Elg, is sick. He is doing alright but he does not want to get anyone at the temple sick. On Wednesday I hosted again, this time I only hosted one Elder, but it was still fun. We got a new district in our zone this week which is great! They have seven Elders and three Sisters. They seem like a great group, and because I am one of the Zone Leaders I had the opportunity to take them on a tour of the campus and explain some of the stuff at the MTC to them. I found that to be quite fun. I hope we didn't confuse them too much. We should be getting another new district on this coming Wednesday, so that is exciting. We also got a new councilor in the branch presidency this Sunday. We had a member of the MTC Presidency in our branch. It was a very strange feeling to be sitting on the stand with him. Our new councilor is really great. His name is Brother Robinson. We had a few more strange experiences happen this week. In my last email I told you about an Elder that passed out and hit his head on the floor last Tuesday. Well this Monday he almost passed out again. We gave him a blessing and he didn't quite pass out. We believe that he is mentally exhausting himself. He is a very spiritual person and he feels that everything must be perfect or he is not working hard enough. On Tuesday we had a different Elder that took some medication that he had just been prescribed, and within 40 minutes he was out cold. He came out of it within about a minute. We had medical people come down and they took him into the ER. He was there until about 5:00 in the morning. He is totally fine now, and he told the doctor he was not taking those pills anymore. Hopefully things will calm down a bit soon here. I only have about 10 days left. I can't believe it. This time in the MTC has gone so fast! It seems like I have just gotten here. One of the Elders in our district figured out that about halfway through September we will be done with about 10% of our missions! That is very strange to me. I am really excited to go to Georgia, but on the other hand I am a little bit freaked out. I am glad that by the time I get there summer will be almost over so maybe it won't be so hot. I have found a couple of random connections here in the MTC. There is a whole new group this week going to Boise on their missions. One of them is from Queen Creek, Arizona, pretty close to Marcie. I also met an Elder that knows Mike Banner, he lives right by them. I don't have my planner with me right now, or else I would give you their names. Anyway it is amazing how many connections you have once you look around. The will be broadcasting the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication here on Sunday so we will all get to attend. I am pretty excited to get to participate in the dedication ceremony. Anyway I am almost out of time, I love you and I hope that you are all doing well. I will keep you in my prayers and I am grateful for all of the prayers that have been offered up in my behalf. I love you all, Keith (Elder Banner)

August 14, 2009

Hey Everybody,
I hope you are all doing well. I have quite a bit of crazy stuff to report this week. On Sunday my companionship got made the new zone leaders in our branch. Being a zone leader is very interesting. It is a big challenge, but I am grateful for the opportunity to grow. I live on the first floor of our building, but all of the other elders in our zone live on the fourth floor. That is kind of a challenge because it is our job to make sure that everyone is in their rooms by quiet time, and that everybody is in bed by 10:30. It can be very hard because not all of the elders here are super dedicated to obedience. On our first night as zone leaders, two elders had not been seen since dinner, nobody knew where they were. We decided that we would give them the benefit of the doubt and not call the front desk until after 10:30. At 10:30 they still were not back so we called the front desk. Luckily they were up at the front desk and so it was ok. The next day one of the districts we are in charge of had a big fight. A lot of the people in the district were having obedience problems and so they were really mad at their district leader for telling them off. It was not a good situation. After a couple of days we got it all worked out, but it took a lot of time. On Wednesday one of the elders in a different district, also in our zone, passed out sometime after we went to bed, and hit his head on the floor. He went to the hospital in an ambulance and he is suffering from a mild concussion. The old zone leaders (they left for their missions on Wednesday) said that they never had anything crazy happen while they were zone leaders. We have definitely had our fair share of crazy events so far. I got to host new missionaries on Wednesday. It was a blast! I got to host two Elders and one Sister. When you host an Elder you help them get to where they check-in. Meet them on the other side with their bags, take them to their residence hall and drop them off to get their medical stuff checked. It takes about 10 minutes, then you go back for to wait for another Elder. For the sisters it is a little bit different. Two host Elders take all of the Sister's bags, so she does not have to carry anything, and they take her to the entrance of the building where the sisters all live. There they meet a host sister that finishes the rest of the hosting.The changed everything this week, so we were the first group with the new system. I hosted one Elder right after our meeting was over, then after a little while, I hosted a Sister. Her uncle was actually the old mission president for my mission. She is actually going to the same mission her dad went to. The next Elder I hosted was actually a triplet. All three boys came in at the same time. They all had exactly the same bags, so it was a bit confusing. It was kind of hard to see them have to leave their families. I think the hardest thing was seeing the fathers tear up, when they dropped of their missionaries. It made me remember how important this work is. I am really excited that Jennifer got to go up to Spokane to visit her friend. I will have to watch out for a Sister Reed in my last week. I hope she has had fun hanging out with Savannah. I am jealous! :) It sounds like she will be a little guitar player when I get back. Angie wanted to know if I had gotten a tape recorder yet. I did so if she wants to send me tapes I can. I am supposed to leave on August 31st so you might want to switch to letters then. In answer to her four square question. I have played four square almost every gym time since I got here! I love it, it is really fun. Thank you for all of your encouragement and support.
I love you all, Keith (Elder Banner)

August 7, 2009

Hey Everyone! I hope that everyone is doing good. I am praying for you guys often. I am past the half way point in the MTC now. It seems crazy. I have been here for over 5 weeks. The way time passes here is a little bit strange, for the first three days each day feels like a month. For the rest of the first half each day felt like a week, and each week felt like a day. Now all of the time is going very fast. I am hosting new elders next Wednesday. I am really excited! I remember when I first got here and my host helped me with my bags, and helped me find my room. I have been looking forward to hosting for pretty much the whole time I have been here.My days of teaching lessons in English are over, and my days of speaking English are running out fast. Each week we choose one more day that we speak only Spanish. Now we can only speak English on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The other days are Spanish only. Our last week here will be all Spanish! I love speaking spanish! I really feel blessed that I have caught on so quick. On Wednesday we taught our first lesson in Spanish. It went pretty well. The lady that we taught was from Nicaragua, I think and she didn't speak any English, so we had to speak all Spanish! I was very glad about that actually, because I hate using things as crutches. I like eating with the native Spanish speakers so I am forced to speak in Spanish. One of my favorite things to do here is TALL, it stands for Technology Assisted Language Learning. Or something like that. It is a program on the computer for learning languages. It teaches me a lot. They are making so many changes here right now. They are replacing all of the computers in my building with really fast ones with really big monitors. It is great because when we were doing TALL on the old computers we spent a lot of time waiting for them to load. We also just got these cool new chairs and desks today! We had been waiting for them for about a week and a half. That may not sound that exciting, but in the MTC that is very exciting. They are always doing what they call "pilot groups" here. Before giving us new chairs and desks they tried out about 15 different types on small groups for a while to see if it helps the missionaries learn better. One of the new things that they are testing right now is having netbooks (really small laptops) to help the missionaries learn their language. We saw a group carrying them around everywhere. We also have a district in our zone that is a different building that has big TVs and other stuff in their room for the teachers to use to teach. The name of the game here is progress, and faster learning. They are willing to do whatever it takes to make us learn more in the time that we have here. I am so grateful for all of the people we have here that help us so much on a regular basis. One of my teachers (she was actually just a sub for 2 weeks) is a convert and she told us her conversion story yesterday. Her name is Hermana Peñaflor. I will have her record it to a tape for me and send it home for you guys. It is amazing! I was so grateful that she shared her story with us. I wish I had time to type it up for you guys but it would take too long. I have found some great friends here that have helped me a lot. When I first got here there were 5 or 6 people that I knew from home here, but now there is only one. Lizzy Law, from work, got here on Wednesday. I was really excited when I saw her. She told me that she saw Jennifer like two days before! It was nice to get to see someone from home. We got a new district in our zone this week. There are two elders going to the Georgia Atlanta mission, so they will be pretty close to us. I have some good friends in the MTC that are leaving next week. It is hard to see them go, but it is also very exciting. I am very excited to go to Georgia and start teaching the gospel. I am not getting really anxious yet though so it is ok. I am sure I will hit that point soon too. I love you guys thank you for all of your letters and dear elders. They really brighten my day. Thank you for your prayers.
Love,
Keith (Elder Banner)

July 31, 2009

Hey family, I hope all is well with you. I am so glad that the family reunion went so well! I hope everyone had a lot of fun! I am grateful for all of the support I have gotten from you. It has been great to get your letters from Dear Elder all the time, I love each and every one! I hope that I have done a good job of answering your questions. If I missed any or you have any more please let me know! I found Jennifer's story about driving the truck to work very humorous. My best advice for her in regards to driving it is: expect the unexpected! I hope that work is going well! I heard that Ryan and Kaylee are enjoying the extra income from working at Seminis, you will have to get them to send me a dear elder telling me about work! I am excited for them! I hope that they will continue to enjoy working there. I loved hearing from Marcie this week!I wish Jared the best in going back to work again. I know that Marcie will be a great stay at home mom! I have been reminded once again of how blessed I am to have the companions I have. They are very good companions. I was talking to one of my teachers, Hermano Valladeres, and we talked about how great all of the elders in our district are. He has a disability in his leg that has been mostly fixed now, but at the time of his mission it was not fixed. He had a companion that would make fun of him about his disability, and yell at him all the time. I am so grateful that my companions are so great. I guess I may not have mentioned I have two companions right now. I really like them both. All three of us are going to the same mission, so I am sure I will see them again. This Sunday is the halfway point for my MTC experience. I can't believe it! It seems so crazy! I have already been here for a month. I have been told by some return missionaries that the rest of the first year feels like another MTC stay, and that the whole next year feels like one more MTC stay. I guess I am halfway done with the slowest part. I know that one day I am going to realize that I am closer to the end than the beginning, so I don't want to waste a minute. I had a cool experience yesterday morning. I was thinking in Spanish! I was so happy, it only lasted for about 15 minutes but it was so cool. On Wednesday we have to teach the whole restoration in Spanish for the first time, our days of English teaching are over. We now have two days of the week that are Spanish only. They can be very hard. I want to write a bit in Spanish for those of you who know Spanish: Yo se que José Smit era un profeta de Dios, Yo se que Tomas S. Monson es la profeta hoy. Yo se que Jesucristo muerio por mis pecados. Yo se que nosotros puedemos vivemos juntos con Nuestro Padre Celstial otra vez. Me amo ustedes mucho. Thank you for all of your support. I love you. Keith (Elder Banner)

July 24, 2009

Hey family, I have really enjoyed all of the dear elders I have been getting. It is great to hear from you! Congrats to Jennifer for getting your associates, I am so proud of you! I am trying to write small notes by hand and send them to each of the families, but it will take a while since I can only write letters once a week. I am glad that mom was able to get someone to take her shift so that she could make it to the family reunion. I hope you had a blast!!! The temple open house must have been amazing. On that topic, people have been asking if I have gotten to go to the temple yet. The temple reopened right after I got here so I have gotten to go twice. I was very impressed, Provo has never been one of my favorite temples, I didn't really like the design of the outside. The inside is beautiful, I really love that temple. Today I did not get to go though. It is pioneer day, and down here pretty much everything is shut down today, including the temple. I wanted to tell everyone of another experience in the RC (Referral Center where we call people). I believe I told everyone about my experience with the lady who was having surgery. Well I have been praying for these two women ever since I called that number. On Monday I learned that I could go back and listen to my old calls. I searched for about 20 minutes trying to find that call. I finally did and I was able to get the number and name of the person again. I called the number and the woman I had talked to the same women I had talked to before! I was so happy! I asked her if they had been able to watch "The Lamb of God" yet. She said that they didn't have a DVD player because she did not have very much money. She is staying at the woman who is having surgery's house while she is going through all of this stuff. I told her that I had been praying for them. I felt impressed to talk to her about the Savior. She said she was familiar with the Bible. I told her that Christ and his apostles did their miracles and blessings by the power of the priesthood. I told her of how after the death of Christ and his apostles the priesthood was no longer upon the earth. I testified to her that the priesthood had been restored upon the earth again today. I asked her if I could share with her the story of how the priesthood had been restored to the earth. She said yes. I told her of Joseph Smith's first vision and of his call to be a prophet. The spirit was so strong during the first vision. I know that she could feel it. I told her of the restoration of the priesthood and of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and I testified that it was true. I asked her if she would be willing to have two representatives of our church come and deliver the Book of Mormon to her along with a message of Jesus Christ. She said that she was very interested and would love to read the Book of Mormon, but that since she was not at her own house she did not have permission to have the missionaries come. I knew that the adversary did not want her to have the missionaries come and teach her. I was persistent and she agreed that I should send her information to the missionaries. I told her that I would put a note down that they should call and make sure they had permission from the owner of the house before visiting. She accepted the missionaries! She seemed very sincere and the spirit was there. I was so excited. I feel very strongly that she will accept their message, and I pray that she will be baptized and feel the joy of being closer to God. I know that I called her the first time for a reason, and that I was directed to find her record again, even though I was not asked to do so. I know that our Heavenly Father cares about each of His children, He wants them all to return to live with Him. That is why I am here. I hope that we can all do our part to bring others unto Christ. The missionaries need the members to do their part to. I would encourage you all to open your mouths. Anyone who is truly your friend, will know that you are telling them about the gospel because you care. If they are truly your friend the worst they can say is that they are not interested. Take the leap of faith, our Heavenly Father will not abandon you! I love you all and look forward to hearing more from you! Love,Keith (Elder Banner)

July 17, 2009

Hey family, I love you all, thank you for all of your letters and stuff, it really is encouraging!I appreciate the emails too, but I wont always have time to answer or read all of them, I only have 30 minutes for email. Please send any longer messages through dear elder, so I can have a bit more time to read them and email you back! I am greatful for your prayers and guidance. I pray for you all often. On Tuesday I had a great experience at the RC (Referal Center, it is a call center where we call people to follow up on their orders for free videos, bibles, and copies of the Book of Mormon. I called a number and the lady on the record was not actually home. The woman I talked to was very nice, and she told me they had not gotten a chance to watch their video, "The Lamb of God" yet. I asked when we could call back after they watched it. She told me the lady that I was trying to contact was going into surgery this week, and was not doing very well, so she was unsure when she would be up and about again. I told her how sincerely sorry I was about the situation. She asked me, very sincerely if I would pray for her. The spirit was very strong! I told her that I would, my scriptures happened to be open to Matthew 7:7-8 at the time. That scripture talks about God answering our prayers. I felt impressed by the spirit to read her that scripture and to tell her that if she would pray with faith, through her prayers and mine everything would be alright. She was very emotional, and told me that she knew that was true, and thanked me. I arranged for her to be called back in a couple of weeks, and I hope that they accept the missionaries when they are called back. Experiences like that make every answering machine, every person that hangs up on you, every person that is angry and tells you never to call them again, it makes all of that worth it. One call out of 50 can make it all worth it. I have prayed for this woman every night since then and I know that her prayers, and mine will be answered! I hope that we can all learn from experiences like this and go forward with faith!!! My time is nearly up for email so I will wrap this up, I will try to write more in my letter today. Please forward this email to the family, or put in on my blog. I am so grateful for a loving family!Oh, and just so you guys know it is OK for you to refer to me as Keith in your letters, it is nice to see your first name occasionally here. Love, Keith (Elder Banner)