Elder Connor Keddington, Oregon Portland Mission: Finding the MTC groove

Hey Mom!

Man, it's already been a week? That's crazy. So many things have happened over this past week, so this may be a longer email, but hey, Sean was a good bad example ;)

I'll start off with the business stuff. We started TRC Investigators this week, which are essentially BYU students that come here to be taught by missionaries as a part-time job. Some are members, some aren't, but we have to meet with each one 4 times a week. Elder Benesch and I had two girls, Arielle and Emily. Emily was a challenge, because she didn't really believe in God and didn't like praying, so we had to share our testimonies on the power of prayer with her. One day, she said she was wondering how she could feel peaceful, and how mormons are always so happy. We basically told her about priesthood blessings and personal prayers, and how they help us. She seemed interested in that. Arielle, on the other hand, had faith that God existed, and that he loved us. We thought all of her lessons would be a breeze, but one day, she came in all depressed and said she was having a hard time in school and felt worthless and unloved. We were really touched by this and taught her about the atonement and how Jesus suffered all of our sorrows and pains, and how he understands them perfectly. It really seemed to lift her up, and by the next lesson she was gleeful and even said the closing prayer. We have 2 new ones this week, Scott and Daryl (who's female), so we'll see how that goes. We heard from Matthew Holland and Elder Stevenson of the twelve this week. They each gave great talks and our district was talking about them afterward.

Okay now the fun stuff. Remember that alarm clock you got me? The really old-fashioned one? Well he's a LOT louder than we expected, and we all nearly had a heart attack the first morning we used him. We named him "Big Ben", and now he haunts our residence. We sleep in fear every night, knowing that he could shriek silver screams in our ears at any second. Elder Hunt's mom sent him a pumpkin, who we now call "Harold". He protects us as long as we keep things spooky. Elder Anderson and Elder Ayre are a bit girl-crazy, always admiring Sisters from afar. Speaking of crazy, the district down our hall is insane, worshiping their "Bro Code" and punishing all who violate it, even without knowledge of doing so. We get gym time every day, and Elder Benesch and I dominate at volleyball, but one day I just didn't have the sauce, y'know? So I missed a ball and it got kicked into my face accidentally and my nose started bleeding. We were laughing about it for a while. We're always up late at night because we're laughing so hard, and the Sisters in our district have no idea why we're giggling at the breakfast table. It's going to be weird leaving here a week from Wednesday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAIA! (our little doggie) I hope you got spoiled, and got all the presents you asked for! I miss you so much, and all the Sisters in my district think you're adorable. (Btw, I started the joke of calling the Sisters "Seesters", so credit to me on that one)

Well, I'm going to spend the next week trying to burn that picture of Dad out of my mind with bleach, so wish me luck on that! (I sent him a picture of Matt's ridiculous Roller Derby halloween costume)

Allons-y!

Elder Keddington (E)

ALSO! There was a man ushering at the devotionals who looks exactly like Donald Trump. He had the weird hair and everything.

It's so great to hear that he is finding his way at the MTC - and is loving it! Lots of prayers were offered on his behalf to help him with his homesickness and Heavenly Father answered them abundantly. We are so very grateful!