July 12, 2010

Hey Family,

Well first of all, thank you for getting me Kyle's address. I am sorry to hear about all of the trouble you have had with the cars. I can't believe it has been that much of a problem. Hopefully this will be the end of it.

To answer your question about transfers the next transfer is August 4th, a Wednesday. We will know who will be transferred on the Sunday before. I will let you know if I will be transferred on Monday the 2nd. I am pretty sure that I will be transferred.

The English Elders have a baptism coming up on Friday. It is an investigator named Khiel that I worked with when I was covering English and Spanish. We also have a family that we are teaching that I am sure will be baptized. I am sure that Elder Hardman and I covered English and Spanish to help prepare us to teach this family. She speaks mostly English and He speaks mostly Spanish. So I have felt prepared to be able to teach her the gospel in the language that is best for her. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to preach the gospel in English and Spanish. Some missionaries are telling me that I will end up switching to Portuguese next and learn another language. Who knows if that will happen, it is all in the hands of the Lord. If he asked me to learn Russian and start speaking the gospel, I would do it. It would be hard but I know it would be what the Lord wanted me to do. Fortunately we don't have too many Russians here so I won't have to worry about that.

I can't believe all of the people that are now returning from their missions. I can't believe that Jordan Woodruff, Blake Wasden, and Kurt have all returned now. It seemed like when they left it would be forever before they returned. It just goes to show that time is all relative. I have heard that as soon as you start to feel like you have missionary work figured out it just flies by and it's over. I am afraid I am starting to get to that stage. This transfer will half over on Wednesday. I can't believe it! I hope that I will be able to do all the Lord has in store for me in this area before I get transferred.

I have a crazy story to tell you all. The other day one the English Elders, Elder Olsen randomly asked me if I knew someone named DJ Savage from Boise. I was really surprised and asked him if his name was Donald, and he said yes. I don't know if you remember Donald Savage, but he was in my third and fourth grade classes in grade school, but his family moved to Boise and I hadn't seen him since. Elder Olsen was in his MTC District and he showed me some pictures. It is amazing how small of a world we live in.

Yesterday at church a lady came up to us and told us that they had some food for us in their car. I was imagining a few boxes of cereal or something but instead she had an entire trunk full of food in her car. I was completely blown away. Our cupboards are now completely full of food. We were also very excited to find an entire box of skittles in there too. It is amazing how kind the members are to us here. Someday when I get back to college I am going to wonder what happened to the people who feed us dinner almost every night and bring food by for us. The life of a missionary is hard but full of tender mercies of our father in heaven.

I testify that miracles are happening all around us and I encourage you to pray and ask our Heavenly Father to remove your fear and open your mouth. I know that it will be filled with the words that need to be said to bless the lives of those around you.

I love you all and hope that you have the best week possible.

Love, Elder Banner (Keith)