Jonah's Last Week! Semana 104

Monday, October 24, 2016

Hey there!!

Well to start off, this is quite an unexplainable emotion I'm feeling right now. How do I sum up one of the greatest adventures of my life in one letter?  It is truly hard to believe that this moment has come! I have known all of my life that one day I was going to serve a mission and that this, the very same mission, would one day come to an end. 

Since I was a little boy singing "I hope they call me on a mission when I have grown a foot or two," I've known I was going to serve. I never knew where exactly or when, but I was hoping that no matter what happened, that the growing a foot or two was one of the benefits of service. I don't think I ever grew that foot or two that I was so very much hoping for, but it's fine because I did get to be a missionary! 

Coming on the mission was a decision that I made years and years ago. Despite the challenges that life threw at me, I knew that nothing would keep me from serving the Lord. My path may have had some bumps along the way, but I wouldn't change it one bit. My name is Jonah, and like the prophet of old, I am loved by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The prophet Jonah had ups and downs along his path too, but in the end, all of those experiences helped to make him a better and more effective instrument in the hands of the Lord. 

My mission has been perfect, even if I was not a perfect missionary. I came to the field willing to serve God and my fellow man with all my heart, might, mind, and strength and in return, I have had the opportunity to learn and grow in ways that I didn't even know that I could. No matter where or what the circumstance I was asked to serve in, there was always something there for me to learn and add to my experiences. There were truly moments that I asked "why me?" and without fail, the Lord would show me the reason "why". Every time I found myself reflecting on the "why" I would be reminded that I needed to be a better disciple and my thoughts would turn to Christ's first disciples, the 12 original apostles.  When Christ saw them while they were fishing on the sea of Galilee He called to them and this is how they responded:

17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. 
18 And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed Him. 

Without questioning "why me" they just dropped everything and followed. One of the greatest lessons I have learned on my mission is that we don't need to know why or how, we just need to simply act and be faithful until the end, no matter what. 

I am so very grateful for my mission and for all the new things I was able to learn by giving these two short years to serve and love my neighbors. 

I'm content with the sacrifices I've made and I can't wait to return home and see each and every one of you in 4 days time! Because of the Lord's help, I will leave here without even an ounce of regret. He has helped me to leave it all on the mat... the whole three periods and then some overtime as well. Because of Him, I've come out on top and hope to be closer to the man He needs me to be.  This is the end of my time here in the mission and I loved it and I'm so grateful for the many blessings I've received! 

Love,
Elder Jonah McKee

PS these are some pictures of my funeral that we held as a zone on Friday. It was pretty funny :)

Jonah's Semana 102 - More Baptisms!!!

Monday, October 17, 2016

MOMMY!!! How goes life?!?! I am so incredibly excited to see you sooooo soon! 

Anyhow, this weekend we had more baptisms!!! It was awesome! We baptized the family we were planning on baptizing next weekend. They told us on Monday night that they didn't want to wait anymore and that they were ready. So, we prepared them for their interviews and 4 new people were baptized on Saturday!! Actually, there were 5 but one of them was an investigator of the sister missionaries that share the chapel with us and we generally do our baptisms together to make it easier for everyone. 

Really though, life is good! This week the mission president informed us that the last day I'll be in the mission, Dallin H. Oaks (one of the 12 apostles) is going to be here giving a talk and I'm stoked out of my mind!!! 

Well, hey, my time was up like 10 minutes ago but I love you and I'll see you in a little over a week! 

I love you!
Elder Jonah McKee

This is the family we baptized! The parents of the 3 kids 

were inactive members that we reactivated and baptized

 the kids as well as the grandma! GOOD STUFF!!!

Jonah's Semana 101 - It's Gettin' Real

Monday, October 10, 2016

This week we had a baptism and it was awesome! We had lots of investigators present and they all loved the baptism! Actually, thanks to the baptism one of the investigators I've been working with for the past 3 months wants to get baptized and so now we are working with her to get baptized this next Saturday!! It's going to be amazing if she really goes through with it! Although I'm super close to going home I know I'm here for a reason and I hope to make sure I fulfill it until The Lord doesn't need me anymore.  Well anyways, speaking of baptism, on Saturday we got to baptize a little girl named Mia. She has been attending church faithfully for the last 3 months and just never received the discussions.  So Elder Fonseca and I started teaching her and saturday she got baptized! Hopefully her mom was able to see how special that was for her and she will follow her daughter's example and make the same decision to be baptized and follow God.  

Really this mission has been one of a kind! This week we had 3 meetings with President Bowler! The first one was a trainer's meeting to see how the new kids are adjusting. The second was our zone meeting on Friday and then later that same day I had my last interview with him. It was so funny because in each and every one of the meetings President continually made an example of me and thanked me for my mission service in front of those present. In the trainers meeting he called me to the front and addressed the missionaries present and told them all to look at me as a example. It got super real! haha. He continued by telling them all about my achievements in the mission and how many times I had trained. He told the new kids that if they were going to follow the example of a missionary then they should model their missions after mine. I didn't really feel worthy of all the recognition he was giving me so iI stopped him and told him I was no perfect missionary. He said it's true, but that I had served a perfect mission, doing everything the Lord asked of me in health or in sickness and no matter where I was he knew he could rely on me. Later on Friday, in front of the zone, he called me forward again and every time he talked about the importance of working hard today because our missions are short, he looked to me to affirm his statement! Haha, it was quite a week! I can truly say that up until that moment I haven't really felt a difference, or that feeling that I'm going home, but with the help of President Bowler I am most definitely aware now of how close I am to going home. 

I miss you and the family but I have two more weeks and I plan on using every second of them! Oh mom I am so excited about seeing you and the whole family again!!! I love you and I'll see you soon!

Elder Jonah McKee

Jonah's Semana 100 - Missionary Superbowl, aka General Conference

Monday, October 3, 2016

Oh man this week came up on us with a great big surprise!! Haha! This last week while my companion and I were doing our weekly planning session we completely forgot to plan for General Conference! When we realized the mistake, we had to go back and scratch a bunch of plans we had made like contacting an area we haven't touched in about a month, two family home evenings, and also a dinner appointment we had set for Saturday at 6. Haha! I don't know why we forgot about conference especially considering that it is basically the Superbowl for missionaries all over the world but oh well, what do you do? 

In the end I truly enjoyed the conference and I loved the part in the talk by Dallin H. Oaks when he laughs at his own joke and then continued onward. I love to see the apostles and know of their humor. Not only did I enjoy his joke but I absolutely adored the words he shared. The way and the form the church works today is faster, easier, and much more efficient. I hope that when I get home I will be able to live the words of Elder Oaks and continue sharing the gospel through other mediums. 

Hey my ankle is pretty tender and I don't know why but it's super weak! I keep twisting it over the littlest things and I can't help it!! It hurts pretty badly sometimes but I don't really plan on telling the nurses about it cuz I really don't think I broke anything I Think I just hit it really hard and it's bruised or something like that. Some days in the night when we get home my ankle is a bit swollen but doesn't usually swell up a whole lot. So I mean shoot, I just have to last 3 more weeks with all this walking and stuff, so I can't let my hinges run out of oil just yet. 

As for the rest of my life, this week we are planning on baptizing a little girl named Mia! However, this all depends on her mother. She is not a member of the church but I have been teaching her on and off  for the past 4 months that I've been here and well, she has finally given us permission to baptize her daughter but she is just not ready yet. I hope she is sure about her decision to let Mia get baptized and that this week we will be able to help them in these last steps to baptism. 

I love you a ton and I miss you! Be safe and laugh often!

Elder Jonah McKee

Jonah's Semana 99 - Leaving It All On The Mat

Monday, September 26, 2016

Mommy!!!
How goes life? Are you still sick? I'm not sick right now. But I am hurt! 

So listen, today we were playing soccer and it was super fun! We played at one of my favorite places to play in the entire mission and I think of my 3 favorite places, it is ranked in second place! Well, anyways, we were there playing today and it was great! The teams were all pretty well balanced and the games were tough. So yeah, we were all playing for maybe an hour, or a little more, and I was running full steam for the goal. I was dribbling it like a pro and as I was about to kick the ball into the goal, one of my good friends attempted to steal the ball from me and he stepped right on the inside of my right ankle. His weight made my ankle fold over and I rolled it super bad!! It hurts pretty good right now and it's a bit swollen but whateves! I'm just gonna tough it out for now and see if it keeps bugging me later. 

Alrighty well in other news... This next Saturday and Sunday are General Conference!!! I'm so excited for conference! Also, the week after that we should have a couple of baptisms!!!  Oh man, I really like being here right now!

My highlights of the week were the following: On Friday we had zone conference and in the zone conference I gave my last testimony and it was something crazy!!  I felt so nervous about life, that all the thoughts I was trying to organize together just kept falling apart; leaving me with a blank page, not really able to center myself. It was insane. In the conference I saw a ton of people I haven't seen in a long time and that was really nice too! 

Later on Saturday, in our area, there was a huge carnival to celebrate the 438th birthday of the capital and there was literally no way to escape all the craziness. So we had to pass a lot of time that night in member's homes so that we weren't dealing with a bunch of drunks and all of that jazz. 

And lastly, this Sunday my companion and I spoke in church and we were able to rebuild our relationship with the ward members a little more by showing them that we want to work. Truly though, it was a pretty good week! I feel satisfied with life because I know that these last few weeks of my mission I'm going to be doing everything in my power to have success. I know with the Lord's help, at the end of day, I will be able to say I left it all on the mat.

I love you!
Elder Jonah McKee

Jonah's Semana 98 - I LOVE TRAINING!!!

Monday, September 19, 2016

HEY THERE!!!

First and Foremost I'd like to start off by telling you that I'm training! I love the training experience so much! Throughout my entire mission the changes I have enjoyed the most have always been the ones that I have been training. It might have something to do with the extra strong mission spirit all new missionaries bring or the fact that I'm a lot more strict in my studies but whatever it is, I LOVE TRAINING. This is my 5th time training and my new kid is named Elder Fonseca. He is from here, Honduras, and he is only here waiting on his U.S. Visa to go to the Provo MTC. He is called to serve in the Calgary Canada Mission and his reporting date to the MTC is November 1st so I think he and I will be on a plane sitting together in 5 weeks time.

Up to this point we have only been together for one week but it has been fantastic! It is awesome having a new companion who wants success as badly as I do and we are starting to actually achieve it. This week we spent a lot of time contacting old investigators and some of those old investigators include Daniela, Alejandra, and Victor. Yes, for a moment we had to drop them and give them some space but now we are once again teaching them and it's great to see them again! Not only are we visiting them but we are also visiting a family whom we had left behind months ago to allow them to fix some personal things before they were truly ready to change their lives. This last Friday we were with them, the Flores family, and we spoke to them all about coming to church and baptism. Four people accepted and we're now working with them so they can be baptized the 8th of October.

Like them,we are starting to work with other old investigators and we have seen blessings. I know that with this change we have a high potential to do great things. I am so very blessed to have this great opportunity this close to the end of my mission! It is allowing me to work and learn to love this labor once again before returning home.  The highlight of my week was most definitely yesterday in church. Thanks to many things falling into place we were able to see 8 investigators in church as well as 3 inactive families. It was truly an amazing sight to see and I was so very proud to hear all of the positive comments from the members about how they can once again trust in the mission work. I hope to do great things in these last weeks I will be here and I hope and pray to be able to leave all of me here in the mission field.

Con Mucho Amor!
Elder Jonah McKee

My new companion is the one on the far right. The two on my sides are two of the others I trained and the one on the far left is being trained my boy Elder Rogers (my grandson).

Jonah's Semana 97 - I'm Gonna Die a Grandpa!!!

Monday, September 12, 2016

Hey mom! I am super sorry but my companion has exchanges and since he is leaving the area and going to the hottest place in the world, in the middle of nowhere, he had to run some errands so I got online late. I didn't have time to write everybody; basically I just read everyone's letters. 

Alright well to start off my companion has tranfers!!!!! I'm so stoked about it!!

I'm going to be training again! I'm so excited! Legit, this is everything I wanted. I still don't know if my kid is going to be American or Latin but I'm gonna find out at the trainer's meeting on Wednesday. Seriously this is the coolest thing ever! I am almost positive that I am gonna love this last 6 weeks of my mission! 

Unfortunately, I never got the last letter from Carter. Was it good? Man it's so crazy that we are all done with our missions! I can't believe that this adventure we have been preparing for our whole lives is coming to an end! I hope we were all able to learn what we needed to. My hope is that now that I'm training I'll be able to have a companion that really is ready and wants to work. 

I'm stoked about life! Also hey, my kid Elder Rogers, one of the kids I trained earlier in my mission, is in my zone and he is training too! That means that I'm gonna have 2 of my own kids here in the zone and 1 grandchild! I'm gonna die a grandpa!

Anyways today I went to Valle de Angeles and hiked to the waterfall. One of these days I'm going to have to take you to see them especially since we will eventually come back here. It's beautiful!

Con Amor!
Elder Jonah McKee