Blessings All Around

Hello all!!

This week has been good, but I am over this whole quarantine thing haha. It's getting pretty repetitive sitting in the same chair, doing the same thing over and over everyday. I am just itching to get back outside and talk with people face to face!!! Restrictions are loosening up in Utah, but not for missionaries. I am expecting to end my mission like this. When I started my mission fifteen months ago, I never imagined this would happen! However, I am grateful I still get to serve, I recognize that as even more of a priviledge now! 

I spent a little bit of this week having a pity party for myself again lol. The past nine weeks have been really hard, so I was mourning the loss of the old way of doing missionary work haha, but the Spirit reminded me of some pretty important things. I have been reading in the Book of Mormon about some of my all time favorite missionaries, Alma, Amulek & the Sons of Mosiah!! sooooooo many wonderful things happened during their time spent preaching the Gospel & they saw tons of success, but they also "had many afflictions; they did suffer much, both in body and in mind, such as hunger, thirst and fatigue, and also much labor in the spirit." Their missions weren't always easy! They struggled. A lot. But the Lord was always with them. He comforted them, and allowed their trials to refine them into more effective instruments in His hands. 

I am confident that this time is just part of my refining. He sees my potential, and the potential for missionary work in general, and is taking us through the fire to get there. I take comfort in the fact that missions have ALWAYS been hard. They're hard because anything that brings you closer to Jesus Christ takes work. But it's through the struggle that we grow stronger. I am grateful to have a loving Heavenly Father who is so aware of each one of us. I haven't seen Him take all this craziness away yet, like I would like him to lol, but I have felt Him help me to keep pressing forward anyway. Blessings.

Some more blessings that happened this week...
- My friend, Angie, who I have been teaching along with her husband said that our meetings are "transcendant." Love that.
- Another friend, Diego, said he loves the "good vibes" he feels when we read the Book of Mormon together, and he knows it must be true! 
- I fasted and prayed for my sweet friend Amber and had the most amazing lesson about baptism yesterday. She was so focused and engaged the whole time and talked about how badly she wants to live with Heavenly Father again someday. That was a miracle... getting kids to focus over video call is usually HARD!  
- We got a referral for a couple moving here from Idaho and they're moving into a wonderful ward!
- Our Ward/Stake leaders are catching the vision! So many have reached out to us this week about wanting to work more closely with us. That was huge!!! 

There are blessings all around, even in the hard times!! Just look for them. They definitely overshadow the bad things. 

LOVE YOU ALL!! have a lovely week.

Love, 
a very humbled and grateful Sister Keeler 

Pics:
- My district went on a hike last week!
- I locked us out of our apartment... our district leader brought us a spare key from the mission office but that didnt work either!! In the end, I had to crawl through the window above our kitchen sink haha good thing that was open! We had a picnic outside while we waited... good thing we had food! Haha
- Shaved ice with my district today!