Jonah Week 13

Monday, January 26, 2015

Hey mom, I loved the very first thing you said about waking up from a nap at 3:30 in the morning!!! It definitely gave me a good laugh!!

And hey I got a new comp!! He is from Argentina and he lived in the mission Spencer is serving in! haha! We both have the same amount of time here in the mission so we are both super green! My favorite thing about him is that we are equals so no one person feels dominant! We both have equal experience so everything is a companionship decision!! I love that he wants to work with the members because it really makes me think about how blessed these companionships are by God. I asked God the whole week for a companion who has the same goals and has the same desire to have a companionship where both people are equals!!! That's exactly what we have!! We are equals and have all the same goals for our time together in the mission. I can tell that this is going to be a strong companionship and I love that he has been showing so much love for the people I have been working so closely with!! Especially for Carlos!!

Carlos is a boy who we have been teaching as the result of a recent convert named Junior!! Carlos is a way strong kid and he in fact is so strong in his beliefs of the things we have been teaching that he has invited one of his friends to stop drinking coffee and go to church with him. As a result we are now teaching the two boys Luis and Carlos just because their friend Junior asked us to share our message with Carlos. They are amazing and I love them with all of my heart!! God has truly prepared these boys for this message and I am honored to be the person bringing it to them. Luis is so smart and for a 13 yr old boy he has such a vast understanding of God!! Everytime he speaks I feel a power in the room I have never experienced before!! His questions are truly inspired of God! And I am teaching him because Carlos, another 13 yr old boy who is so incredibly firm in his beliefs asked him to hear our message! Those two boys are special and they want to be baptized soo badly! I am so excited to bring this gospel into their lives and I can't wait to enter the waters of baptism with them! But for now, I cannot. The mother of Carlos will not give him permission to join our church and he has invited her 3 times to join him at church and 4 times to hear our message. I love Carlos and I want to help him but all I can do is pray that the heart of his mother will be softened. Please remember him in your prayers that we may continue to bring and guide him unto the Father.

Thank you all for everything and thank you for all of your prayers. I really see the blessings in my life everyday as a result!!  I love you mom and I love everybody else at home but most of all I love my investigators. Please remember Carlos in your prayers tonight. Thank you!

siempre, 

Elder McKee 

 

 

 

Spencer's Take 2, Semana 38

Monday, January 26, 2015

This week was a weird one. We had interviews with our President on Saturday and that is always fun! In my interview he asked me when I am supposed to end the mission and when I told him he just said, wow you still have a lot of time to go!

This week has been full of lessons. We lost a lot of baptisms due to stupid reasons and we ended the month with just 6 for January. This morning we received a call from the assistants of the President and they let us have it! We were basically called to repentance. I have a lot of respect for them so I really took it to heart and I hope to make immediate changes!

This life is weird. We know that we have more potential but we also know that progress happens through time and that it requires patience but I sometimes am not a very patient person. Especially with myself.

Another thing that happened this week not for the first time but never gets easier is we lost another family we were teaching. I don't know why it hurt so much but it really got to me when the dad of the family returned the Book of Mormon we gave to them and told us they weren't interested! It is even weirder to think it affected me so deeply when you consider the fact that we had only taught them once before and he really was very respectful as far as rejecting goes. It never stops hurting, the rejection. You would think that you would just become numb to it but it gets to me every time. :(

On a more positive note, I did have the privilege to get to know a really cool girl this week! She is not your ordinary girl! She plays for the National Seleccion of Rugby for Argentina and is a beast! She could show me a thing or two about how to be a man ;P She doesn't live here unfortunately but was just here visiting her aunt who is a member. When she left, she left me a couple of gifts that really meant a lot and really lifted my spirits! As many times as we have been rejected I seem to only remember the people that we impact and help. I love the mission! I love the ups and downs and the trials that God gives me to make me stronger! I hope you are all doing your best as you endure to the end!

I was studying the other day when I came across a talk that stressed the question, "If Christ were to descend from the heavens right now would we try to hide or would we walk up to Him and look Him in the eyes?" If you are one of the people that would hide I invite  you to examine your lives and make the changes that are necessary to have the confidence to look the Lord in the eyes right now!

 

con mucho amor,

Elder McKee

 

 

Jonah Week 12

Monday, January 19, 2015

My favorite experience this week was, hahhamy leg just cramped so bad!!!!! I am sitting in a little booth writing you right now and my  leg just cramped so bad I almost started crying!!! haha I don't even know what I was going to tell you anymore but I guess my favorite experience this week was church!!

I had 10 investigators in the church this week and on top of that I got to teach the primary about reverence with one of the other elders. He and I killed it and the primary teachers all came and said thank you to us because it wasn't planned he and I just both recognized the kids have a problem. We asked the teachers if we could take a little bit of time to share a lesson, they said yes and then we continued by iintroducing ourselves and asking them who wants to serve a mission and be like us. They all raised their hands and then we began to explain that if they want o be like us then they have to listen to everything we say. They all were very attentive and alert as we then began to teach about reverence!  By the end of our 30 minute lesson we left and at the end of church you could feel a difference in the energy and how much more spiritual the hallways felt!

Mom, one thing I have learned this week is that it's not our choice to share the gospel it's our calling. We are all called by God to create the kingdom of God here on the earth and if people get offended then it's not our fault. I know that if you share the gospel with people then some people won't accept it but you should continue to be their friend. God said to love one another and that goes for everybody!! The best way you can be a missionary is by being brave, being bold, and in standing forth as an example to others. Missionary experiences come in a lot of forms such as saying hi, asking how somebody is doing, or simply just smiling and waving. I know it sounds dumb but I know that most of my investigators are the simple result of me smiling and saying hi until one day they just decide to invite me into their house. The Lord really does work in people.  You just need to help them open the door.

Do you remember the painting of Jesus standing outside of a door and on the door there isn't a doorknob. Well that painting is a lesson in and of itself. You need to open the door from the inside and let Jesus, the Lord and Savior of the world into you life. He never forces it upon people but He is patient and waits until they open the door for Him to enter. Help people open their door by simple acts of kindness and maybe one day they will ask you why you always smile or why you are always willing to help. Those kinds of questions are invitations to share a mesage. simple short and sweet. ¨I always smile because I know that no matter what God will love.¨ That's all it takes. You just planted a seed in their heart.

Mom I love you and I know that our Father in Heaven loves you. Open the door and ask Him for help in your missionary opportunities. He will always come through!! I have been blessed for 6 weeks to see and feel God taking me by the hand and literally guiding me through a labyrinth of questions and everytime when I follow those feelings the words that come out of my mouth are the words the investigator needed to hear. You can recive the same guidance, just ask. He is always listening. He is always willing. He is our Father and He loves us.

I love you mom, remember that always!

Elder Jonah McKee

Spencer's Take 2, Semana 37

Monday, January 19, 2015

 

Buenas tardes mis queridos!!! All is well here in Tucuman!!!! It has been a reallllly hot week with tons of humidity.

 

This week we had a baptism! A man named Oscar whom I have been teaching since I got here finally went down! He has changed sooooo much! He went from you basic argentine dad (drinker, beater, lazy, all you can imagine) to a spiritual giant! It was a conversion that took 3 months rather than 3 weeks but it is a true repentance that has happened in his heart! I remember the first time I went to his home, I heard him whisper to his wife,"porque tienen que estar aqui?" which means why do they have to  be here. It was obvious to me that he didn't really want anything to do with us. He didn't like us that much in the beginning but like I said he changed a ton! His wife was at his side the whole time; she has been a member her whole life. She is part of a family who is well known for being strong members here but she got lost from the trail a little bit. But as she has worked her way back to the pathway she brought her husband with her! They were married on Friday and then Oscar got baptized on Saturday. The dad of Paula, the wife, came up from the south of Argentina to do the baptism and it was beautiful! When Oscar came out of the water they just hugged each other and Oscar cried! He then had a tearful experience later the next day in church when he was confirmed again as he gave one of his first public prayers in the gospel priciples class. He is a spiritual giant! haha As he cried so much which is not normal for him I couldn't help but think that he was like a girl on one of her crazy mood swings like they always have during pregnancies and stuff where their emotions just go crazy. That was Oscar as he cried all day long! It was beautiful! and funny.... haha :)

 

I love you guys so much! Don't ever think that someone you know will never change! When you start to doubt just think..... Oscar changed! so can 'so and so'!!!!!!! 

God is good. He works miracles!

 

I love you all so much.

Elder Spencer McKee

Jonah Week 11

Monday, January 12, 2015

 

Hahaha you can bet I'm gonna be working my butt off if it means I get to have a girlfriend like her when I get home!!! but hey in all seriousness I got so sick this week!! We ate soup at this one family's house and there was a lot of cabbage in it. Little did I know because my trainer hasn't done his job at training me that cabbage is off limits for Americans! The cabbage here in Central America has a bacteria in it that we never get exposed to in the states. So this bacteria messes your stomach up like no other!! I ate all of the soup because it was from an investigator and later that night I was destroyed!! I was like a double fire breathing dragon!! I spent the night on the toilet mostly. I had a bucket in my hands for the vomit and a toilet underneath me for whatever else that was.

 

But hey after my super long night of stomach problems I continued on and the first thing I had the pleasure of eating was a plate full of cow stomach! Haha cow stomach is not the most appetizing thing to look at and especially not when you were literally just up all night being destroyed on a toilet!! haha But I ate it because it was my food and you always eat whatever you're served!! It was interesting!! It was super chewy but it was actually really good! It tasted like carne asada but really spicy carne asada!

 

Also this week we had 5 investigators in the church!! One of which was Tranquilino!! The old man who we gave a blessing to the week before! We have stairs in front of our church and he is old and can't walk up the stairs so I asked him if he trusted me, he said yes so I began to take his arm and put it around my neck. I picked him up and carried him up the stairs!! He was laughing so hard I thought he was going to kill over in my arms!! It was seriously crazy! We invited him and his grandson to be baptized and they both accepted. We are supposed to baptize them the 31 of this month. Also this Saturday I should have my first baptism!! Her name is Gissel! She is 22 and she is a great investigator!

 

This week is going to be awesome and I especially hope it's more productive than this last week! Ya know since I was stuck in the house on the toilet on Wednesday. But hey it's fine it's just another part of the mission!! haha Well this mission is quite the experience and all people who can, should serve because you'll never forget the times on your mission!!

 

Love you all,

Elder McKee

Spencer's Take 2, Semana 36

Monday, January 12, 2015

This week was a good one. It was the last of the transfer, so things were kind of crazy. It was even more crazy because we traveled to Salta for a leader conference and then the day that we got back from Salta we did divisions with the assistants. It was good to be with them they are really cool. I went with Elder Trollip. He was here in my area before as a zone leader for 6 months so he showed me around the place. It was interesting to see how he worked in a part of the area completely different of that which we work in. We normally make the trek everyday passing through the more wealthy neighborhoods to get to the neighborhoods that are a little bit more humble because it is a lot easier to talk to the people there. They challenged us to work closer to the church in the neighborhoods that are more wealthy so it is going to be interesting to see how that works out!

 

We had a bunch of people that I have been teaching since I got here fall out on us. They all got lost just because they missed 3 weeks of church! It's sad but it just goes to show just how important it is to go to church every single week! We try to explain to people that as we miss church we have to pass through the next week with the transgressions of the week before just sitting on our shoulders which forces the Holy Ghost to space himself from us. Without his guide it becomes harder and harder to make the right decisions until he is so far from us that we can't hear him and we get completely lost! It's scary but true!

 

In the leader conference we talked about some pretty interesting stuff! We talked a lot about the goal of baptisms for the New Year! The goal was set for 2015 baptisms in the year of 2015!!! It was an ingenious idea from yours truly!!!!!! I felt soooo cool! haha. When I suggested it everyone laughed but I was so serious! They have no idea! In 2014 the mission baptized 1635 children of God which is basically the same as what we baptized in 2013. It would be an accomplishment to reach 2015!!! We will see how it goes. :) 

 

I love you guys so much! I hope all is well in beautiful Las Vegas! 

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Spencer McKee

 

That is me and Elder Ellertson in the bus on the way back to Tucumán after leader conference and then that's me with Juanita the apartment complex whale. And then last is of the most ferocious gang of critters in barrio Nicolas! A duck and two dogs! 

 

 

 

 

Jonah Week 10

Monday, December 5, 2015

 

Hey mom how are you? I had an awesome week full of amazingly spiritual experiences. We have a new investigator named Tranquilino and in Spanish that means peace! He is about 85+ years old and he is such a sweet man. He has received the first two lessons very well and in our third visit I asked him how his health was because I noticed he is always rubbing his hands and knees like Grandpa Buckner. He told me his health has been really poor over the past three months and his hands and knees are always in pain! I felt an impression to teach him the Word of Wisdom rather than teaching him the third lesson the gospel of Jesus Christ. He had questions but over all accepted the message with ease. I told him that it is a promise of God that if we live this law God promises to bless us with health that we may walk and not be weary, run and not faint. We asked him to pray to God and ask Him if this commandment is a commandment of God! He  has a problem with coffee so we also asked him to  pray to have strength to help him overcome his addiction and as we were about to close with prayer he asked if he could offer the prayer. He began to pray and with us he prayed to ask God if it was a commandment, he paused and began to cry. He asked God for help and asked Him to bless him with health and strength. He promised God that he would live this and the rest of the commandments for the rest of his life is he could have his health. He finished the prayer by thanking God for sending these two angels into his life.

 

The spirit was so strong and I asked him if we could, with the authority of God, give him a blessing at this time and he gladly accepted. I gave the blessing and I don't know how but I gave him a blessing of strength, health, and faith. The spirit of God was working through me and if I tried for the life of me I would not be able to repeat this blessing. I used words I still to this moment do not know. My companion looked at me after the blessing and I know he and I were both amazed at what had just taken place. Tranquilino thanked me and gave me a hug. We have an appointment with him and I can not wait to hear how he is doing.  

 

After this amazing experience we had the opportunity to go to the temple and do a session. We of course accepted and went with all of the other missionaries from the east to do a session. The temple is beautiful!! We had to pay a bus fare of 120 lemps each which comes out to be about 6 dollars a piece and at the end of the day Elder Johnson came to me and said we as a group were 800 lemps short. He told me he didn't know why he was telling me but felt like he should. It just so happened that I had the exact amount he needed still with the 20 I needed to pay for my taxi home. I have had amazing faith building experiences this week and I know the Lord is infinite. His power is incomprehensible and the mission is a place of miracles.

 

If there are any people questioning to go on a mission then I urge them to serve. You will never have the opportunity to witness so many miracles and works of faith again in your entire life! The mission is the work of the Lord and He is hastening it. I pray daily to have His hand present in our work that He may guide us and that He may open my mouth. God is real. God loves us. And God will always provide a way. I testify that all is possible when you ask in faith. He will always be there. This week has forged my faith and I will never be able to deny that God exists.

 

Mom I love you and I thank you for raising me the way you did. You are an amazing person and without the freedoms I had I don't know if I would be as well equipped to help people here who have all walked different walks of life. Luckily for me I have experienced these walks through my freedoms and my friends. Thank you for allowing me to build my faith for myself. I love you!

 

Elder McKee

Spencer's Take 2, Semana 35

Monday, January 5, 2015

Hello friends and family! This week was awesome! With the whole new year thing I got to thinking a lot and I miraculously found a talk thats called "Becoming a Consecrated Missionary" by Tad R Mcallister. These past few weeks I couldn't help but feel a little inadequate. I have such a desire to become the best missionary I can and it really is hard sometimes! The talk that I mentioned taught me a lot of stuff that I am applying to myself this new year. I want to be like Nephi and Ammon and Amulek and all those missionaries that taught with so much power and spirit. I want to end my mission and have no regrets! I am consecrating myself to the work!!!! I am so excited to fully apply the things I have learned in my short time in the mission to become the servant that the Lord wants me to be! I feel like all this time I have been a charmander. Right now I feel like a level 17 charmander that is about to evolve into a charmeleon!!!!!

 

I love this mission sooo much! I love this gospel with all my heart! I am grateful for the new year and for what it represents and how it inspires everyone to change everything for the better! I hope that you all realize that because of Jesus Christ we have the opportunity to change every single day, minute, second. We don't have to look very far but but we have to have our eye single to the purpose of the Lord with our mind set on walking in the footsteps of our Savior Jesus Christ!!! I love you all so much! I hope that your new year is amazing!!!!

 

con un corazon llenisimo de amor,

Elder Spencer McKee

 

 

Spencer's Take 2, Semana 34

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

 

So this week has been long!!!! Due to the fact that Tucuman is filled with lunatics we had to switch P day to Wednesday so that we aren't out in the streets on New Years Eve. So we worked a week and two days straight! I got so tired just from working two extra days! I now understand why it is literally written as a rule to take a day to prepare and rest.

 

It has been especially hot and humid lately. It rained for a week straight and now all the water that got soaked up into the ground is just raising into the air and it is killing us!

 

Today we had the option to move our P day from the morning and afternoon to the afternoon and night because the nights are going to be impossible to find someone who is not drunk besides the little kids and even still, the little kids are going to be busy hurting themselves while they light off fire works. The morning was rough. Everyone was preparing for their parties that they are going to throw tonight so I can only imagine how bad it would have been to work in the night. 

 

I have been studying a lot this week just about changing. When I think about it, I still have a lot of time left in the mission and that means I still have a bunch of changing and learning to do. My companion, being the good example he is, has really helped me develop an actual desire to become more like Jesus Christ. He is a guy that doesn't worry much but if he does worry it's because he worries he isn't doing what Jesus would do. I really admire that of him and it is affecting me. This week I took the time to really focus on having a change of heart. It is hard but I already can tell a difference in my life as I conscientiously work to change. As this new year comes along I hope that you all can evaluate yourselves to see what changes need to be made to become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. I love to think that thanks to Jesus Christ, every day is literally a new start. What happens happens and the important thing is that today is a new beginning. Elder Ellertson always says a quote from Kung Fu Panda that goes a little like this.... "Quit, don't quit. Noodles, don't noodles. Yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift. That is why they call it present!" Those are some wise words to live by! 

 

This last Saturday I got to baptize the type of investigator that every missionary wants to have!  Her name is Alejandra Gomez and just three weeks ago she was Atheist! She has had a rough last year with the passing away of her husband. The sad occurrence caused her to lose all faith in any God. In 3 short weeks we saw a seed of faith be planted, nourished (a lot), and grow into a huge tree with sweet, sweet fruit! She is amazing and is so firm in her testimony. She has had such a smooth conversion because she was so lost in her studies of the scriptures and her prayers. Finding people to teach really is a hard task. People that will listen are rare. People who are willing to act are almost non-existent!!!! 

 

I love you all soo much and I hope you have a  great new year!

Elder Spencer McKee