August 9, 2010

Hola Familia,

Yo decidi (perdon pero yo no puedo poner los accentos) a escribir todos mis emails en Espanol. Entonces si quieren entender lo que you escribo, tiene que aprender el Espanol.

Okay, so I guess I better write my email in English this time. I am sure you are all waiting with baited breath to know where I got transfered to. I am serving in a little town in North Georgia called Dahlonega. It is actually a very historic place. It was the site of the first major gold rush in the United States and the birth place of the phrase "thar's gold in them thar hills" (seriously) It is a lot different than my last area. I have always been in the city, now everything is very spread out. We determined that our area is about 600 square miles. We cover half of the Sugar Hills Georgia Stake. I also found out that the Sharon Springs ward where Joel and Linda Hiatt live is covered by my new area. It is exciting (and a little bit disorienting) to finally be in a new area.

My new companion is Elder Braydon Muffins, I mean Uffens. No it really is Uffens. He always jokes around about opening a bakery called Uffens Muffins. He is from Centerville Utah and I think is one of my favorite companions so far. I am really excited to be working in this area. There seem to be many great people here. I have actually been on bike a little bit here. We share our car with two English Elders here so we don't always have a car to drive. I have discovered that I am not in very good shape. We have been running every morning too, and sometimes I am very tired. Georgia most certainly is not flat. In this area they even have "mountains" ( more like the Boise foothils). We have done some pretty tough rides lately.

You guys should look up stuff about Dahlonega on Wikipedia or something so you can kind of see where I am serving. North Georgia College is in Dahlonega. It is a pretty big millitary school. There are a lot of kids in ROTC. We were at Walmart today and there were a lot of army kids in there. We actually met a returned missionary there that is about to finish school.

Wow I am really surprised to hear that Kent and Marshiela are moving to Nampa. Have they been wanting to do that for a while? I had not even heard about that yet. It will be really cool to have some more Banners at Skyview high school. Tell Ryan to get used to having teachers ask him if he is related to us. Also tell Ryan congrats on getting his Eagle Scout. That will be a really good thing, especially on a mission. Members are always asking if we got our Eagles becuase they want us to be good examples for their kids. (Oh also, tell Ryan that if he doesn't write me soon I am going to beat him up when I get back).

Kudos to Marcie for having a friend a church!!! That is awesome! You have no idea how much it helps missionary work when members get involved. It would be imposible for the missionaries to share the gospel with everyone alone. I am very proud of you. It sounds like Angie and Ben made it to Idaho Falls alright. I am really happy that they are still close to home, and also to Rexburg.

Well I guess I better wrap this letter up.

I love you all,

Keith (Elder Banner)