Letter

So I feel like I am a lot older or more mature or grown up or something.  At the same time I don't think I'll get too weird or change that much or anything because I'm still a spaz. I just have to hold it back a lot here which is pretty easy because I am soo tired all the time except at night. Hmmm!Big surprise huh! I hear it keeps getting easier and easier the longer you are here until the last week or so when you are just ready to get out of leave and clock out. I am afraid it might happen to me by week 4! HaHA ( me too)

I miss my friends a lot. The guys are great here, but they aren't my boys back home. I definitely miss scoot seeshes and random trips. Don't even get me started on how I miss girls it is a whole new world and way of life not being able to talk to all the girls everyday from back home.( I wish his friends would write letters) I got a letter from Sumer today and that was really nice.

It's super funny here how everyone is from a huge typical mormon family. HAHA ! everyone has at least 4 siblings. I love you all soo much! you are the best family anyone could ask for.

Kaden, Kyra, Grandpa Fred(95) Jeanna. Stopped by to see my grandpa before we took Elder Keller to the MTC

One last family pic. It truely was an amazing experience

Matt C, Elder Keller (that is so weird to type) and Daniel L

The best 2 kids I could ever hope for!

Elder Keller & Elder Keller Ha Ha Ha! Klint's nephew left the same day .

I thought I would finally update with some pictures. What a great experience preparing a young man for a mission is. Kaden has been out for 2 weeks. I know these boys must love the Lord, because until you have a missionary of your own out you don't really seem to understand the sacrifice they make willingly and lovingly.

So ill just give a quick little shpeal on what iv been up to since i emailed on saturday. Sunday was fast sunday which was hard 26 hours is a long time when your not to used to it but all went well and then monday we went and had gym and service i like gym here i dont do nearly enough cuz their gym is random machines laying around in the corners on the track upstairs haha. but monday we taught our investigator and did very well we taught her 5 times and so we are done now and she is our teacher but she said that me and my companion teach the best because we have the spirit really strong from right when we walk in until we leave! that was awesome to hear she compared us to a lava lamp where it stayed the whole time and just moved around instead of leaving. So i have also been doing really good with the language still i learn more and more everyday! Yesterday in gym i might have broken my nose and/or been slightly concussed by im not supposed to say those things to my mom huh... whoops but i am ok i get a shoulder to the nose and started bleeding all over but then i just stuck some things up it and kept playing. Today we got to go to the temple for the first time we go at the 7:20 session every thursday... (D-lem/critch) hahaha. It was very spiritual and good we got to eat the food there and its way better than the food at the mtc not that the food here is bad its good but it tears your insides up pretty bad. So thats the only things that have happened really that are interesting at all. But encourage people to write me or those dear elder things or something!!!! haha especially dylan lamb, j com, and zack i got lots to tell the boys about what to prepare for and what not. Tell bonzo i miss him too and if he wants to tell me he misses me he can write hahaha. But all kidding aside the mtc is the best being a missionary is the best everything is so spiritual all the time the only time you even notice the spirit is when its not there. thanks for getting me the immunization records it wasnt a big deal or anything but we only put the end dates but we needed the others too. So im really glad to hear dads shots and everything are going good and that he is feeling better i hope it keeps getting better. Kyra i miss talking to you and hearing about your nights even though when you would tell me sometimes i wouldnt seem to interested haha. So im making tons of friends here the people here are the best!!! everyone is super nice and funny its pretty funny to see how crazy being in the mtc can make you everyone acts really wierd but i think its cuz we are all going kinda crazy in here. So i know when missionarys write their letters are supposed to be super full of scriptures and all that jazz but i dont think ill do that for a while i'll probably start to find some soon but my mind lately is just so busy i cant even remember anything i want to say. I just want to say that jesus died for us and that to truly be happy we have to live like him and repent and use the wonderful gift of the atonement . I love the book of mormon i find so many great things in there that i use everyday its funny because i think i have more scripture references memorized in the week iv been here than the 4 years of seminary.... whoops but i love you all so much! I am glad to hear you are all doing so good it really makes my day to hear from you all!!!! (: days go like weeks and weeks go liek days is pretty much the motto for missionaries haha it might not make sense but it is so true. I love you and pray for you all every day and night and usually like 3 other times during the day between the 25 prayers they have us say a day. ill hopefully write a better letter next week because i wont have as much going on but i love it here and am super excited to be here and become a better missionary and person. Love You!!!!

First Letter!!

Well so far the first day was good.It's insane how busy we are, but I really like it. My companion is Elder Atack he is almost 21 and went to the university of Oregon so let Dylan know that. He's a good guy he feels like he doesn't know a lot because he wasn't very active until about a month ago, so he is a little nervous, but he's going to be just fine. My other roommates are Elders Wood and Dekker we are all goin to Fort Worth. They all seem pretty cool guys too.One is from Highland(Wood), Dekker (Cali), Portland (Atack). Today we had a really cool and spiritual experience teaching investigators as a group of about 30 but you could really feel the spirit in the room. It's cool how much of a desire I had for someone I only knew for 10 min. that was acting to accept the message we were teaching. So I still don't know how things work to well but we are finding out quick. Classes give me a headache because it's all Spanish all the time for 2+ hours.

So today is my second day and it was ridiculously busy! Food isn't too bad. Oh ya well I am a district leader now, so that's cool.But fairly overwhelming! I know nothing about it and am pretty busy as it is.

Let's get on people to get me some letter cuz I am getting bored and feeling lonely at nights.There is soo much to study and learn it's really insane Tell Jordan,D Lem, Zack and Ry Rob coach Miller lies. They should understand.I miss my family more than I thought but I can't get sad about it even when I try. Haha! Tell Sumer THAnks for the journal and picture I am filling it up quick. I am not gonna lie my companions are cool,but not at all compared to my friends. I miss all my girl friends too. THere are soo many guys here. But I am so happy to be here and have grown a lot and feel different, but I don't act to different other than some of the things I say. I have to teach someone for 30 min. tomorrow and have no idea about what to say.

SO they have Mtn. Dew here in the MTC bookstore!! It's caffeine free though AHHH! I haven't tried it, but I'll probably give in eventually. I'm giving my companion a blessing tonight cuz he's freaking out and so are my roommates.

Don't forget to write!! I'm only supposed to write back on THursday's, but I might write some onother days.  So I have my P-days on THursdays instead of Mondays so that's odd, but oh well . I love it here the spirit is soo strong! I love everyone soo much! And so does Jesus!

Kaden's farewell talk Oct 30. 2011

Farewell talk

Good morning brothers and sisters. Usually at this time the closing speaker thanks an individual or group for a moving musical number. How blessed am I that I get to thank everyone. I’d also like to thank the speakers that have gone on before for bringing the spirit to this meeting, and im going to try to keep it here… most of the time. Today I was asked to speak of sharing the gospel.

            Why is it important to share the gospel? The first thing that came to my mind was a seminary scripture mastery D&C 18:10 “remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of god” this lead me to a quote from President Uchtdorf in the last session of General Conference where he said “this is a paradox of man: compared to god man is nothing; yet we are everything to God.” Since we are all gods children and the worth of our souls is great and matters much to him then how much more do those who have not heard the good news of the gospel matter to him. This is why we must share what we know to be true.

            It is impossible to be truly converted to the gospel and not have a strong desire to share it with others. In the Book of Mormon we see many examples of after someone is truly converted to the gospel they have strong desire to rush and share this message. The first that I thought of was the story of Alma the younger. He went about doing much harm to the church and its members, after repenting during a long period of unconsciousness that most of us won’t necessarily have to go through to become converted the first thing he did when he “came to” was start to praise god and teach those around the power of the Atonement and repentance. A few chapters later we come to one of my personal favorite stories, Ammon and King Lamoni. Ammon was one of the sons of Mosiah the king and went around with Alma the younger during both the time before he changed his ways and also after. Ammon had repented and had such a desire to share the gospel that he and his brothers ventured into the land of the Lamanites, the people they had been at war with for the past few hundred years, to bring them the gospel. Alma ventured into the land of Ishmael and ended up becoming a slave to King Lamoni. After putting on a feat of strength through the lords power were he took on a large group of men of angry men alone Ammon was summoned to the king. While there Ammon proceeded to teach the king that he was not the Great Spirit that the king had heard of but was a messenger and servant for that Great Spirit who is God. He taught him and King Lamoni was so overcome with the spirit he also became unconscious for two days, but when he awoke much like unto Alma he began to preach and to teach to those around him.

To be true converts we need to have the “Courage to Stand” as is stated in Joshua 1:9 to share this good news. This scripture and idea of having courage to stand is especially important to me because it was our EFY theme for the year that me and my best friend Zack Hansen went. At this time Zack had not been baptized, but because of the testimonies born and the spirit at EFY from all the other young men and women around us Zack had the courage to stand and accept the gospel and its principles and standards in a world that looks down on one for doing so.

            At times it will be hard and as President Monson said in the last Priesthood Session of General Conference “Dare to be a Mormon; Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm; Dare to make it known.” This quote really brought home to me the importance of sharing the gospel fearlessly.

            So since sharing the gospel is so important how can we do it? This summer I had the opportunity to go skydiving down in Las Vegas with some of my friends. They are probably laughing because on the way home I said “I am totally talking about this in my talk in a couple months!” now at the time I was planning on using it to describe the power of prayer or how one can use faith, because I was full of both that day especially on the plane ride up. After receiving my topic “sharing the gospel” I wasn’t sure if I would be able to fit it in anymore because I couldn’t come up with anything to say that related. Then a few days before I was thinking back on the trip and how exciting it was and the joy it brought and how good it felt and how happy we all were and I remembered that me and Dylan Lamb went first and we landed and the first thing we did was go over to each other and have a quick little moment… and then we quickly rushed to the rest of our friends and just explained to them how great it was and how happy we were and expressed our feelings to them and how excited we were for them to experience this for themselves, and when we got home later that night it was the same story with our friends and family. This is much like bearing testimony to someone who hasn’t experienced something you have. Bearing testimony is the biggest part of sharing the gospel. The best way to bear ones testimony is with the spirit (D&C 42: 14) because without it you cant teach.

            This summer me and some friends had the opportunity to spend a week on a house boat at Lake Powell. One night we were tubing and Sherene Carter our “lake mom” told us it was time to get heading back but Jordan, Jason, and I were dinking around in the water. From where she was she could see that a storm was coming so she said again guys lets go and we started to head back slowly to the tube because we didn’t sense the urgency. Having her there was much like having the spirit prompt you to do something and if you are slow to follow the promptings there are usually consequences. So since we didn’t come back as fast as we should as soon as we got to the house boat the storm started and the wind was so violent it ripped the anchors on the house boat out of the ground and slammed the boat into the beach. We arrived literally seconds to late. This was a good lesson to me in following the promptings of the spirit because even though everything ended up being ok it could have been better if we would have been a little quicker in following a prompting.

            So what can we do now to share the gospel? I’d like to first address the young men kind of like Elder Holland did in the last priesthood session so im gonna get in your face a little much like a coach would, just enough to singe your eyebrows and tell you that you cant play for both teams. This isn’t high school anymore boys were you’ve got reversible jerseys on you have got to live in a way that the spirit can be with you at all times. We all make mistakes we are human but its what we do after we make them that seperates the men from the boys or better yet the missionaries from the boys. “Pray always that you may come off conquerer yea that ye may conquer satan,” (D&C 10:5) truer words cant be said. Prayer is such an important part in keeping the spirit with you throughout the day and through the tough times.

            Now something that everyone can do is to talk about the gospel online. As Elder Ballard said “Now may I ask that you join the conversation by participating on the Internet to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the restoration.” Examples of ways we can do so are Mormon.org where you can set up a personal profile to tell people who don’t know our beliefs or want to simply learn more in your own words how “us mormons” live and how we are normal people and we don’t have horns and we aren’t polygamists or whatever you want to talk about pertaining to the gospel or what its like being a latter-day saint. Other ways are blogs were you can talk about your daily lives or social media sites like Twitter and Facebook were you can post a favorite scripture and hope someone sees it and maybe likes it too?

            Alright before I move on to the next part of my talk I'm going to give a bit of a warning. I grew up with Neil Adams and Rick Cleaveland as scout and young mens leaders and if you have ever heard either of them talk to more than ten people for longer than a few minutes it takes a while because they soon become “overcome with the spirit” so if I start to cry just know that its not my fault its theirs. Also I would like to ask a favor of the audience that if you happen to start to cry… mom… please put your head down and pretend your asleep because if you don’t I will definitely start to cry and we don’t want that.

            I know that God loves me and blesses me everyday (as I start to cry) oh gosh so much for that. I know he loves me because he has given me all of you to help me become the man I am today. I am so blessed to have all of you everyone here loves me or came with someone who does love and that’s cool too haha. I know that god sends his missionaries where they are needed and I know that me and my friends who have recently got our calls or left are so blessed because the prophet sends us were god wants us to go and has someone waiting to hear something that we have to say. I know that sharing the gospel is so important and we all have a big part to play in doing it. I know that the atonement is true and really happened and can work for me as much as I need it and I am blessed for that. And I love this gospel and this church and all of you and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen,