This is a portion of the letter I wrote to Jonah and then his response:
I loved the talk about the guy that was called to be a mission president and when he told his work, they were upset. They asked him, why didn't you tell us your intentions and when did you decide to do this. He said that he then answered that he had decided as a 19 yo boy to follow the Savior and that he would always follow the Savior. I thought that was awesome!!! So many of the decisions in life boil down to this one decision. You either decide to follow the Savior, or you don't. And once that decision is made, every other decision in your life will be simple because it will either fall into line with following the Savior or it won't.
A family favorite talk was Elder Holland's when he told the story of the brothers free climbing and how the younger brother saved the older brother's life. I loved how he likened that to the atonement and how the Savior is our lifeline, He saved us from eternal death. There really were so many great talks, I HEART conference!!!!
Jonah's response:
Hey so that talk you're talking about was by Kevin W. Pearson and it was by far my favorite talk! I loved that in one part of his talk he said this "When you make a covenant with God, there is no backing out". I was thinking very hard about that line and I was thinking about the baptismal covenant we have all made and that we all took the name of Jesus upon us and how everyday we need to embrace the attributes of Christ and live as He would! We took the name of Christ upon our shoulders, to bear His cross, take it up, and walk with Him! We are meant to live that covenant everyday and there is no backing out! There is no excuse like "but hey my friends made me" or "sorry I couldn't go to church, the tire on the car blew out" we never have an excuse. We made a covenant with God and the covenant is everlasting! I have been in deep thoughts about how I can fully take up my half of the covenant and live as Christ would. I know I'm not perfect but I am trying to be better everyday!
This week was very interesting. Here in the Easter season they celebrate the semana santa or the holy week. This is the last week that Christ lived here on the earth. Everybody takes the entire week off of work so none of the markets are open and just about everybody who lives in the city leaves to the smaller barrios outside of Teguc! So since I'm in Teguc, I and probably 50 other people were the only people here in Valencia! It was honestly a very slow week but that is to be expected when the whole world takes a pause for the entire week. But since we couldn't really visit very many people we ended up doing a lot of service and that is always nice. It's a good way to press forward in the work of the Lord but in a different form.
The change of pace was needed because the mission president was alerted that my companion is super disobedient and he called us into the mission office to meet with him. I'm not gonna lie my comp isn't the best missionary in the world but shoot we all have our faults! During the interview he made me tell him all of the things I have seen my companion do that he shouldn't be doing and then after my comp and I switched places and I waited for him and president to talk. They both came out and president told me I am now the senior companion and that my companion is no longer to have the phone or be given the opportunity to write other people besides his direct family on Monday... He then told me that if he doesn't change in the next week then he is going to send my comp home... shoot. I don't know what exactly he did but it can't be good.
So, this week I will be doing my very best to help my companion recognize the importance of being here in the field and helping him change to be the obedient missionary the president is asking him to be! I love you all and I am so thankful for the examples you have been in my life. I am hoping I will be able to mirror those examples you have all been for me and guide my companion by example and invitations. Remember you're covenant of baptism always and live the most like Christ you can!
This week was very interesting. Here in the Easter season they celebrate the semana santa or the holy week. This is the last week that Christ lived here on the earth. Everybody takes the entire week off of work so none of the markets are open and just about everybody who lives in the city leaves to the smaller barrios outside of Teguc! So since I'm in Teguc, I and probably 50 other people were the only people here in Valencia! It was honestly a very slow week but that is to be expected when the whole world takes a pause for the entire week. But since we couldn't really visit very many people we ended up doing a lot of service and that is always nice. It's a good way to press forward in the work of the Lord but in a different form.
In our main service project the entire zone rallied to help this family stop their house from falling down the mountain more than it already has. It turns out the way you do that is by digging a really deep trench lower on the hillside and then jamming this trench full of huge rocks and securing posts in the rocks that are there to support the home. After all of this you fill it in with sand and cement. So that's what we did. I got put on the boulder crew and all we did was lift huge rocks up into the back of pickups and then unload them. Not going to lie some of those rocks were pushing 300 lbs. There were two rocks that I nor Elder Pauu could lift solo so we had to tag team it and after all that good stuff we all were left exhausted! I like the change of pace we get from service and this week was a week when a change of pace was well needed.
The change of pace was needed because the mission president was alerted that my companion is super disobedient and he called us into the mission office to meet with him. I'm not gonna lie my comp isn't the best missionary in the world but shoot we all have our faults! During the interview he made me tell him all of the things I have seen my companion do that he shouldn't be doing and then after my comp and I switched places and I waited for him and president to talk. They both came out and president told me I am now the senior companion and that my companion is no longer to have the phone or be given the opportunity to write other people besides his direct family on Monday... He then told me that if he doesn't change in the next week then he is going to send my comp home... shoot. I don't know what exactly he did but it can't be good.
So, this week I will be doing my very best to help my companion recognize the importance of being here in the field and helping him change to be the obedient missionary the president is asking him to be! I love you all and I am so thankful for the examples you have been in my life. I am hoping I will be able to mirror those examples you have all been for me and guide my companion by example and invitations. Remember you're covenant of baptism always and live the most like Christ you can!
always,
Elder McKee
Service project
Ice Cream after Priesthood session, some traditions stay the same!
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