Dad Life:)

Hello Fam!!

So like I said last week I am a dad. And it feels really weird and is like awkward deja vu!! But my companion is Elder Jakob Potts from West Jordan, UT . I picked him up from the mission office on wednesday so the monday and tuesday before that I was with Elder Maldonado from Chile! He arrived with me here in the mission. But he was a lot of fun to be with. But as for my child he is doing good. I have been reading some of my journal entries from my first week to see how I was feeling in my first week aand have been trying to just be a good trainer.  I have had the responsibility to lead all the lessons and work now which is different and a little overwhelming but this first week hasn't been too bad. It is actually fun to contact around christmas time cause usually the people here with christmas decorations up are at least willing to give you 30 seconds before rejections. And it is a little easier to pick the house to contact haha. This past week it rained all day Friday and then in the afternoon on Saturday. Then Sunday it was a great day. We had 62 people at church which is the most I have ever seen here in Fontana and that might be in part because it was the Primary program. There were 12 kids in the primary program... and it was kinda of enjoyable. The exact same as it is in the states. Kids either talk way too quiet so that you can't hear them or shout like they are King Benjamin giving his address to the people. Then today we played basketball at a church and just kind of spent time with other missionaries. Then went to subway here in Resistencia and are now writing in the usual Cyber cafe. But basketball lasted like 20 minutes cause it is just way too hot to play. But it was my first time playing basketball in the mission and as you all know I suck at basketball. It is my second worst sport behind soccer. But against latios I kind of like basketball cause I can school them. Now I know how Patrick feels when he would school me all through out high school. 

I enjoyed hearing that Kamrie had her baby and Gabe got married. Thats sooo exciting. 

The work here in fontana is a little frustrating. People just are not keeping commitments. Mostly the people who are so close to baptism. And we are kind of low on investigators. On Friday I was feeling just kind of down because we haven't had a lot of success. I opened moms package friday night and there was a ensign from the conference. I read the talk by Elder Uchtdorf from the Womens general session entitled "4th Floor l

Last Door". And boy after reading that I felt like I needed to improve. It talked about missionaries contacting an apartment complex where they didn't find success until the last floor and last door. I definitly decided that I could do better. Not that I was bad before but that I could improve. I am confident that, at least in the mission, you should not get too comfortable. There was a quote that I still remember from the MTC that said, "There is no comfort in the learning zone, and no learning in the comfort zone." We learn from being uncomfortable and doing hard things. 

I am excited to talk to you all on Christmas. I got approved from President to just corrdinate with you guys when we should talk. So I think we will do it on the 27th cause the 26th is a P-day. I heard that you guys wanted to do a confrence thing so that Logan can be apart of it sooo that will be up to you guys cause I dont have the time to figure that out. So..... we will be able to coordinate all the details for that on the 26th when I write. But you will have to make me a skype account so that I have something to log into. 

I got some pictures this week with my new bee, a turtle I found in the street and from inside a taxi. and other stuff on dropbox. I love you all and hope you enjoy your week. Love ya

               Elder Corbin Keicher

I'm Going to Be a Dad!

Hey Fam!!

So pretty BIG news here. Transfers was a huge surprise for me. I recieved a call from President Franco early Sunday morning to extend a call to me to be a trainer. So I will be recieving a brand new missionary out of the MTC on Wednesday. In this group there are 6 Americans and 2 latinos (one brasilian) so it is likely that I will get a Gringo to train this transfer. That also means that I am staying in Fontana. Elder Gallegos left Monday morning and his new companion is... Elder Butler haha my trainer. Kinda weird. So I will spend my 4th transfer of my mission here in Fontana again. Which actually I am happy for because it is nice being by the mission office. And we have a mall near by to eat McDonalds. So this next transfer will be pretty interesting and fun. And earlier this past week I had "Tramites" and i dont know the exact translation for that but basically its the process to recieve my Argentine government ID card. I had to go to a local police station here in Resistencia on Wednesday morning which took like 3 hours. Then on Thursday I spent the majority of the day in Corrientes which is a different provence next to Chaco. There we spent the day pretty much in like a DMV type building.. took photos, signed papers, stuff like that. There were a couple other missionaries there with me but there was one named "Elder Nuñez" who when I saw him, I thought for like 20 seconds it was Michael Maxwell. He looked exactly like him. I was freaking out in my head and was soo confused. But then I realized it wasn't him. and He is from Chile too haha. But anyway. I also had the priviledge to spend 2 days with Elder Phillilps cause he was doing Tramites with me Wednesday and Thursday. It was interesting seeing him again since I havent seen him for 5 months. But I enjoyed all the different things and fun stuff that happened this week. A lot of sifferent Elders and the mission has a different feel to it now that I have a title and there are a lot of different elders in my Zone and district. There is one other Gringo training from my group and 2 gringos from my group that got made Zone Leaders. So my Group is growing up quickly. The mission passes quickly for sure. It feels weird that I haven't talked to you guys yet. But I am defintely excited to do so. I still haven't heard anything so far about the Christmas call. We have a Zone Meeting on Friday so I will know more maybe next P-day to tell you guys concerning that. 

Bueno, Sunday we had 4 investigators at Church which was nice. Two of them were Pablo and Augustin Boasso. This is there 10th time attending church which is a TON considering they aren't baptised yet. But its the same story with them... not married. I will plan on setting a baptism date with them this week so that they can set a goal. And that why we can work toward a date. The other 2 that attended was a mother and her son (Zuni & Ivan). They are awesome. They accepted baptism this past week but they didnt want to commit to a date because they wanted to go to church to see how they liked it. So hopefully by next week we will have 4-5 Invetigators with a baptism date. Pray for them!! 

I am super excited to be a trainer. I seriously think it will help me a lot to become a better teacher. This first 3 transfers I have had companions who knew the language better than me so sometimes I fell back on them. This transfer I am super excited to tackle this challenge. I hope I can be a good trainer! 

Well its is basically Christmas and I know we have all seen the #LighttheWorld chirstmas video on mormon.org

It is a video that really brings the spirit and shows the true meaning of Christmas. I would challenge all of you to share this video on your social medias to allow everyone possible to watch and feel the true spirit of Christmas. And if you really want accompany Alam 7:11-14 with it. 

Well thats all the crazy news with transfers this week. I hope you all enjoy the freaking snow and cold, and holiday spirit haha. I'll just enjoy some 110 degree awesomeness haha. I wish Asher luck with his "little" opperation. 

I have photos in Dropbox but no videos. They take too long to upload. Maybe next week. Love you all!! 

Love,

Elder Corbin Keicher

I Have a Dream

Hey Fam,

This week was pretty fun! Nothing too crazy. I had my first dreams this week where i have been a missionary or in the mission field haha. Before this all my dreams took place home or with you guys. But like 3 days ago I had my first dream where I was a missionary. And it was weird. I was at the Temple in Paragauy...weird  i know. But basically what happened in the dream is I walked into the temple and the power went out. And we were just talking to the guy at the front desk of the temple but it was dark and they were talking in spanish and i didnt understand what was going on.... then I woke up. It was very odd and that is basically all that happened. And then I had another dream last night that I was missionary but I was home with my friends. And I felt so weird cause in the dream i was a missionary but with all my friends at home and they were on their phones, and clash of clans, and normal things going on around me haha... really weird. 

But anyway, I went on divsions this week with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Regan. He has been my zone leader since I got here. It was fun and I laerned somethings from him. He has 8 months left in the mission. 

Thanksgiving looked liked a lot of fun. I ate at a members house on thanksgiving and I took a picture of what I ate on thanksgiving. haha nothing compared to you guys. I am trying to find the pictures I took this week but they are hidden in some folders so i am trying to look for those. But really nothing to crazy or noteable happened this week. Just casual missionary life. But things will be fun this wek. this is the last week of this transfer, so I am probably going to be leaving... maybe you never know. And I have to go do "Tramites" on wednesday and thursday which is basically just doing to do paper work to obtain your government ID card. I will have to go various times in this first year before I actually get it. So that will be interesting. Then like I said we find out our future on Sunday night. So next week my P-day will be on Tuesday. Today is a holiday in Argentina so a lot of places are closed. But we went to the mall to eat McDonalds and it was all decorated in Christmas with a huge tree. Made me feel Trunky haha. But not too bad.

This month of December the church has the christmas initative of #LighttheWorld or #IluminaElMundo . Which is just the challenege to do small or big acts of kindness for someone everyday of the month of the December. The video is out too for you guys to watch. It is sweet. I recommend you all watch it if you haven't.

Macquel asked me if I was reading "Jesus the Christ" in spanish or English. and my answer is neither. I am reading it in Talmage Reformed English. Its the 3rd language I am studying on the mission. Actually kinda hard to understand hahaha but its really good. 

But I cant wait to talk to you all in one month. Super close. Sounds like mom is going to be working on Christmas so we might have to talk the day after christmas. But anyway... sorry for the uneventful email haha I'll try to write down experiences each day to share with you all in my emails.

 I hope you all enjoy you week. Love ya!!
 Elder Corbin Keicher

(love his "kiss face" haha)

¡Pavo!

Bueno!! how goes it fam!

Life down here is just going as normal. this week was a lot of fun. We had divisions and a multi-zone conference. First off divisions was a lot of fun. I went to another area with my District leader, Elder Angarita, from Columbia. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed spending a day with him. I could understand his spanish so well and he has a fun personality. He has been here from 15 months. With divisions, what happens is we meet up during the siesta or after lunch and make the switch there. Then we go our ways and return the following day during the siesta to switch back. It's a lot of fun because you get to spend time with someone different, in a different area. Then on Thursday we had multi-zone which was a lot of fun. I was a little nurvous because I got assigned the night before to give a 5 minute thought out of preach my gospel to start the conference. hahaha so that was fun. I just read a little blurp on Dilegence and shared my testimony on that. But the conference was awesome because we got introduced to the Christmas theme this year which is "Illuminate the World". We got to watch the christmas video also which is super dope. President instructed us to start every lesson in december with this video. So that will be fun. But with multi-zone confrences it is practically all day. From 10am-5pm. the morning is a capacitation from president Franco. Then we eat Lunch and then listen to the assistants talk. There is also a mission video that the office makes every 3 months for these conferences that has pictures of all the baptisms that took place and then just pictures from missionaries. And then there are confrence quotes from apostils in it as well. Then at the end, Sister Franco gives birthday cards to all the missionaries that will have birthdays during the following 3 months. And then the missionaries that will leave in the next 3 months give a "last testimony". Then after everything we take a photo. So these conferences are fun. 

Anyway tomrrow marks my 5-month mark in the mission. Kinda crazy. It is practically Christmas. Oh and with Christmas we get to Skype. And in someplaces the connection is bad. I will be somewhere diferent when I Skype but I dont know where yet. And the length of our Skype session will also depend on where I am. If I have to in a church with a lot of other missionaries then it is likely that we can skype for only 45 minutes. But If I am with only a couple missionaries or at a members house.. it can be a little longer. It just depends on where I am....so we will see. But I really am doing great. We had stake confrence yesterday and that was a lot of fun. There were like 400 members there. I could understand like 50% of what was said. The temple presidency from the Paragauy temple was there. Thats the closest temple to here. Like 6 hours by car. Our progressing investigators are frustrating me right now cause they are like mas o menos progressing. We have a family that we are teaching that when we contacted into them told us that they have been goingto some churchs but havent found one that they like. They dont like the catholics or the evangelics. Which are the 2 big ones here. We have had like 4 lessons with them and they really like the message but say they will only be baptised if they recieve an answer... which is great. They are so prepared but aren't going to church. Thats probably the frustrating part is when you have investigators that are prepared and ready to accept but just dont go to church. Anyway... Its crazy this transfer only has 2 weeks left in it. I feel like I just got E'Gallegos as my companion. 

Everyone sounds great. I hope you all enjoy thanksgiving. That is one thing I will miss hahaha. Evelyn looks great. Have a great week and eat a lot of food!! Que tenga un buen dia de PAVO!!! 

Love all ya

E'Corbin Keicher

¿Trump Ganó? ¿Tengo una sobrina?

Hey Fam,

I have been waiting for this P-day since Wednesday afternoon. haha Thats when I found out about Trump winning. We were eatting lunch at a members house and they turned on the TV and Trump was all over the TV. And then ontop of that... at 7pm that night I got a call from President Franco. I was a little nervous when I saw that president was calling.... especially during the day. Usually when that happens, 9/10 its bad. Either you are getting emergancy transferred, or you did something wrong, or something happened back home. But it turned out to be good news and he just told me about the birth on Evelyn. I was pretty surprised because I thought she wasn't coming until thanksgiving time. But pretty awesome nevertheless. So this week has felt a little longer than the others as I have been waiting to see pictures of her and hear all of the news about everything. But I am super happy for all of you and Macquel. And it is crazy how many people here talk about trump, People see me (an American) and ask me about him and I never know what to say haha. My companion hates Trump haha. 

But anyway this week was pretty good. Nothin too crazy happened just normal missionary things. The work here in my area is slowing down and we dont have to many investigators progressing. It makes the days a little harder when you have to do a lot of contacting. But thats just how the life goes as a missionary. Right now E' Gallegos and I are working on the member list that the branch here has. We are trying to pick an area and search for "members" to see if they are actual members or if they are still alive or if they have moved. And then try to make some contacts while we are at it. But the problem is, is that the address here are so messed up. Its very difficult to understand were a certain address is just because it is so unorganized. But we are working. I am reading Jesus the Christ right now and it is soooo good. Parts are hard to understand but I have learned some cool things that I didnt know before. Right now I am at chapter 15 and 16 and it is talking about the orignal 12 apostles of Christ, who they where, and why they were called to that posistion. And the next chapter talks about the sermon on the mount. All of which I didnt have too much knowledge of because it is all in the Bible and I really have only STUDIED the book of mormon. Thats something I am excited to learn more about... the bible. I literally have an hour each day to read stuff. So once I master this language I want to read the bible cover to cover. 

Anyway, I attached some pictures of this week. One is with a little girl. I took a "selfie" with her while we were waiting for lunch. Then the other is my district right now. The other is when I found out about Trump winning the election. And the last is a meal that a member bought for us one night. They bought us a meal and brought it to our appartment. pretty good. Then in Dropbox I put 2 videos. One is of grandmas dancing to a song called "picky picky" in the plaza of centro Resistencia. And the other is me just messing around while a memeber was making us lunch. 

Also, I didnt know or feel an Earthquake so it must have been small. I dont think they get earthquake here. Probably closer is Chile and the cascades. I havent got a package yet... just the ones from Trumbos mom and the last package. But we have a big multi-zone meeting Thursday at the mission offices so if one is ther I will get it. But thats it from me this week. I loved an excerpt from 2 nephi 2:1-4 I believe, It is super good and if you put your name in these verses instead of Jacob its pretty neat. ANyway Love all. Have a great week. So happy about Evelyn. Now waiting to hear about Kamries baby. haha CHAO!!!

E' Corbin Keicher

Getting HOT

Hello Family,

How are you all? This week in Argentina has been great. I am a little upset right now because all my pictures on my memory card are gone.... idk what happened. I am glad I have been uploading them to dropbox but the photos and videos from this week are gone. I am not sure what happened. So I'll just explain what I did a little better.

First off, we got our email time cut down to and hour and a half so a little shorter. So I am sorry if I cant get back to everyone who emails me but if I have extra time at the end Ill send ya a little note. Just know that I really love your emails, thoughts and stories from your week that you all share with me.

So this week E' Gallegos showed me how to make empenadas. It was a lot of fun and I put TACO bell seasoning on the hamburger meat that we used. It was super good. In return I showed him how to make a salad from America (IDK why but thats what he asked me to make haha). I think he asked me because I had Ranch that mom sent me. So I just made a typical ranch salad. I kinda understand why he asked me that because here, a salad is lettuce and salt or tomatoes and oil. Its really bland and weird. But it was super fun. We also had a zone meeting last Saturday which was fun. Last night we had an ASADO, or a BQQ, with the Boazzo family- which is a family really close to baptism but just lack marriage. Unfortunatly I wont be here in Fontana for their wedding and Baptism because they are planning on getting married in Janurary. Idk why they are waiting but... they are. But the ASADO was super good and we had coke which I loved. The food down here is pretty good. I really cant explain. I love ASADO and empanadas. Those two are my favorite. But the most common meal members serve us is noodles with a sauce and chicken. I will try to get a picture of my food sometime. I absolutly love ALFAJORES. Look them up they are a type of treat/candy cupcake thing that is distinct to south america (i think). It is SO good and I usually buy one every other day.

The language really is improving. I am learning and understanding a lot more. It is helpingme that I have a lantino native speaker now. He usually has to repeat stuff 2-4 times before I can recognize the words he is saying. It doesnt help that he has kind of a lisp haha. My comp reminds me of "Michael Oher" from The Blind Side. He is a big friendly giant. A little feminine but its okay haha. The branch here in Fontana is great. We average around 45- 50 members in church every Sunday. Thats actually not bad for here. And the members are super good. We usualy dont have to do anything. One time I had to give a talk cause the speaker didnt show. But other than that we just sit and listen. There is enough preisthood to administer  and pass the sacerment. I do have a request for mom. I would like another laundry bag because when I send my clothes to get cleaned I dont have something to put my dirty clothes. And if you send another package, I would like juice powder mix to make juice. Other than that thats is. I asked E' Gallegos and he said just a little something that says america or has an American flag on it. Something small. But I think I will be gone by the time I get the next package because transfers are at the begining of December.

 I have been really focusing on obedience lately and trying to be obedient. They are so many "rules" in the mission and if you arnt focusing or if you are being a little lazy, more than likely you are not keeping a rule of the mission. For example our average day is a little different than the typical sechule of a normal missionary. We wake up at 6:30am every day. We have an hour and a half to exercise, shower, and get ready for the day. 8am-9am we have personal study. after that we leave and are out walking, talking, and contacting people. If we have a lunch appointment we try to arrive at the house of the member by noon. We eat and then return to our appartment by 1:30pm. Here were start companionship study and finish around 3-3:30pm. Then after that we have language study. By 4:30pm we are back out until 9pm talking to people. Then when we return at night we plan for the next day for 20 minutes, eat something and get ready for bed and are in bed by 10:30pm. And thats the typical schedule. If we have district or zone meetings those take place in the afternoon during the siesta. The siesta here is hardcore. From 12-4pm is the siesta. And it is like Utah on Sundays. All businesses are closed and nobody is out. Everyone is in their house eating lunch and sleeping. So for that reason we have studies/meetings during the siesta. But like I was saying, as a missionary we ask people everyday day to live the gospel, listen to our message, and be obiedient. And if I, as a missionary, cant even be obiedient, how can I expect investigators to do so. Its just like everything else. As imperfect humans we are constantly judges, comparing, and trying to tell other people what to do. But in reality we are just as imperfect as the people we judge and critisize. It reminds me of a quote from Elder Dieter F. utchdorf when he said, "Dont judge me because I sin differently than you." We all lack and struggle. So I as a missionary have to make sure I am living the gospel, the rules, and councils of the church before I can invite someone else to do the same.

Anyway I love you all. Good luck with the new president. I'll be safe down here in Argentina. I'll pray for you cause either way you're all screwed up there hahahaha. I love you all.  Have a great week..

Loves,

E'Corbin Keicher