Jonah's Semana 44 - The Best and Biggest Decision I Have Ever Made

Monday, August 31, 2015

Yes I did it!!!! This week has been a huge adventure full of super fun surprises ranging from performing two baptisms to having a little girl cry because my comp lied to her.

While I was on divisions in another area, my companion told her I left and that the other elder was taking my place! Haha. They called me and made me talk to her because she started crying just because she wanted me to be there!!! Haha. I am teaching her and she is planning to be baptized this next weekend! Her name is Viviana and I love her to pieces!!! I am teaching her and her cousin and they are both such great investigators!! This next week we are going to be with those two a lot because they need to constantly be reminded of what they’ve learned thanks to the very poor schooling they receive. But, all is well because I love them and they both love the Lord! That’s what counts in the end, it’s not the huge knowledge that one may have but it’s the full and pure love they have for our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ.

I am, this week and every week following this one, going to be attaching a small voice clip to give a small description of my week! This week is the first one I will have ever sent home for you all but if you choose to listen to it than just know I was truly touched and blessed to have had the opportunity to work and participate in those baptisms that have passed this week!

I love being a part of this work and I think that if I never did anything right in my life before, then I can honestly say that this is the one thing I have done correctly! The mission is the best and biggest decision I have ever made and there is never one moment that I regret being here!!! 

God loves us and He waits for us to act according to His will and when we do He pours blessings out over us!  I am truly a testament of this!!!  I can see every day how God has been helping me to put my life in order and helping me to at last feel like I am accomplishing something bigger than myself!! I love the Lord and I love this work! Thanks for all of your support and all of the love you all send me through those weekly emails!

You’re my motivation,

Elder McKee

 

 

Spencer's Take 2 - Semana 69 - Single Digits

Monday, August 31, 2015

Hello friends! I am officially in the single digits of weeks that I have left! Don’t worry I’m not trunky or anything but I am really excited to be home! Haha, there is a difference, trust me!!!!

This week was a good one. We have been working really hard and it’s weird because we get to the end of the week with only like 7 total lessons and normally, if that were to happen, I would feel like the week was a huge waste. But even with such a low number of lessons I still feel like we have been working! We have 2 cases of people that are progressing really well!

Ejemplo numero 1: Marilin. Marilin is the mother of 3 and is living as a couple with a member named Nazareno. Nazareno has been a member since he was 8. Even the kids of Marilin are members but Marilin no. Why you ask??? Because here in Argentina nobody believes in marriage! Crazy, huh? They are anti commitment! It’s easier that way I guess?? But anyways, if I have failed to announce, they have finally decided on a wedding date! They have plans to get married the 16 of October and then Marilin will be baptized the next day! I feel so accomplished to be able to say that! You have no idea how many missionaries have passed through Frias and have tried to get them married!

Ejemplo numero 2: the Rodriguez family! They a very large family of a mom, a dad, and their 9 kids! All the kids are between the ages of 18 and 1. I love them so much! They are a really shy family but little by little they have really opened up to us! They were supposed to come to church yesterday but they failed us. We were bummed but there is always next week! And then the next and the next.... etc...  Until the end! Because that’s what we do! WE ENDURE!!!!!! So ya. We are doing well.

Elder Christensen is a stud. I think God put me with him because he is still somewhat normal in regards to the things of the world and he is here to help me not be so weird when I get home! He is helping me make a solid list of music that I need to listen to when I get home.

So ya!  Life is good! Not for a lot of people here though.... we have been really busy giving blessings to the sick. It was weird, this week at one point there were 4 members in the hospital all at the same time! A sister passed away on Saturday early in the morning! It was sad. She was really nice and once in a while would randomly invite us to eat empanadas in her house! The pic of the pot of empanadas is a tribute to my girl Estella!!!!

I love you all! The church is true! Jesus loves us! Have a good week!!!!!

Elder Spencer McKee

 

 

Empenadas for Estella

Jonah's Semana 43 - I'm a Papa!

Monday, August 24, 2015

Hi everyone! How are you doing? I’m doing great, just so you know. I’m actually sick right now, I’ve got a cold. But I’m happy and that’s what’s important, right, that’s somebody is happy when they’re sick. I’m a sick, happy camper, lol. But yeah, I’m hoping I can get over this cold in the next couple of days, I’ve had it since Thursday.

I don’t have very many stories to tell you this week, so I’m just going to start out by telling you that my companion had changes! Elder Lopez, my Ecuadorian comp, had changes. So on Wednesday, we were in Tegucigalpa to find out where he would be going. He got sent to my old area, the first area that I ever served in, so I was telling him all about it. It’s going to be cool that he’s there! He will probably finish his mission where I started!

For a new comp, I received a kid named Elder Castillo; well, he’s not actually a kid, he’s 23. And I’m training him! I’m a Papa! It’s going to be pretty interesting! I never thought that I was going to train. I never thought that President was going to put me in that position, but then again, I never thought he was going to make me a district leader either.  So, I don’t know if he’s crazy or what, but I guess we’ll find out :P But for now, he’s put me in charge of training and I’m not going to lie, that makes me a little nervous. We’ll see how good I am at being a dad.

For now though, I’m still nervous. I’ve had three days of working with Elder Castillo, and they’ve been good days. I’m just nervous, I don’t really know why though because he is a good kid. He speaks great English and he’s from San Pedro Sula, Honduras and he’s here waiting on a visa. He could leave any minute. I think that’s why I’m more nervous than anything, it’s because I don’t know what’s going to happen. Like with a normal missionary, I know that I’m going to have at least 6 weeks with them. We could do this or that together. But with Elder Castillo, he’s just a visa waiter, sitting in this country, waiting for his visa to come through so he can go serve his mission in the West Isles. So, I guess that’s what makes me more nervous than anything; the unknown time factor. It’s a little hard not knowing how much time I’ll have with him, but God knows what He’s doing, I trust in Him. So if he goes, it’s because he’s going to teach someone that he promised from the preexistence to find. It will be a great adventure!

Dad, did you ever get to train? Maybe you could give me some advice to help me be the best trainer possible. Throw me a bone!

This week, we got to go to a conference with Elder Nelson from the Quorum of the Twelve for all of Central America. Two missions were invited to go, mine and the mission just north of this one Comiaguela mission. We all met in a chapel called the Pena, and just so you know mom, that chapel is where we had the clinic for the medical brigade. That building is in the other mission, so I never thought that I would be able to see that chapel during my mission.  But, I was there this Saturday for the conference, and it was kind of funny, because I was like “Whoa, hey, I’ve been here!” I’m starting to realize how funny it is to come back and visit all of the places we had been when we were here together.

Anyway, it was a great experience to be able to see a servant of the Lord! I realized as I listened to Elder Nelson speak that people in the church are allowed to have a personality. I hope other people noticed this as much as I did. He is a special witness of Jesus Christ; he is one of the twelve on the earth, he’s basically the Peter of today. When he spoke to us, he made a lot of jokes and a lot of funny comments. It was actually really entertaining to listen to him.  And just listening to him speak helped me to realize that just because someone is a representative of Christ, they don’t have to be a robot. Perfection doesn’t require us to be boring. We’re supposed to strive for perfection but we should not be afraid to be who we are. Like, if you’re super animated and have lots of energy, you should express that, those are gifts from God. And, if we’re perfect, we should be expressing all of the gifts that we have from God.

So that helped me to realize that we as missionaries should be happy; we should make jokes. We should be loving and kind and everything that we are. We should express who we are and what we are made of, whether that’s humor, a free spirit, a loving heart; we should express it all. I hope that other missionaries were able to get this out of the meeting too. We have a lot of missionaries here that are like robots. They think that they need to be less human so they can be more obedient. President Nelson is one of the most obedient people on the earth. He is one of 13 special witnesses of Christ and he showed us this week that as one of the twelve, he is still human. He is still loving and funny. It was so refreshing to see his sense of humor, to see him lively and active and with such a bubbly personality. I was grateful for the opportunity to learn from him!

Well, that pretty much sums up the week. I love you guys very much and hope all is well with you! Take care until next week.

Elder Jonah McKee

Spencer's Take 2, Semana 68 - Jose accepted Jose!

Monday, August 24, 2015

This was a good one!

I had a lot of eye opening experiences. I feel that many times, not only in the misión but in life we get stuck into the routine of things and we forget what we are doing and why we are doing it! We had a man to man talk with a member here, his name is Claudio but everyone calls him "Titi" no, not titi like nipple, titi like in Spanish pronunciation, "teetee". Anyways, he is about as wise as he is big. And he is BIG!!!!! Like probably tipping the scales at about four hundred!!!! He made us realize our purpose. I admit, when I got here I thought that I was the man; the cure, the solution that Frias needed. But he said that I need not think like that. He said that our only job is to help edify the kingdom and that made me change my perspective on how we have been working here.

One of the biggest challenges and it’s sad but, the members that one would expect to come to church don’t come most of the time. Or at least they lack consistency. I feel that if we are ever going to be able to have good converts and give them a good look at what the church has to offer the members need to be there. The members are like a big fishing net and if they don’t do their part then it is like our net has holes in it! We are going to be focusing a lot more in helping the members magnify their callings. I would appreciate your prayers!

Elder Christensen and I are doing really well together. He is learning a lot. One of our zone leaders tends to be a little judgmental and he was hard core judging me by Christensen in a zone conference the other day. Naturally Elder Christensen got a little discouraged but he really shouldn’t have because our ZL is a dummy and I think he forgot the fact that Elder Christensen has only been speaking Spanish for 2 weeks. So he’s an idiot. But then a couple of nights later I made Elder Christensen do the verifications and he spoke so well he blew the mind of the zone leaders! THAT’S MY BOY BLUE!!!!! But ya, he’s a stud.

We taught a lesson to a guy named José. He is the dad of a cute little family that consists of him, his wife Karina, and their 9 children! It was the first time that we taught José alone and it was a successful lesson! We talked about the restoration of the gospel and the whole shpeel about Joseph Smith and all that good stuff. It’s always an exciting time, that lesson. It’s like holding hands with a girl for the first time. You count down from 3...2....1..... and then go in for the strike! That’s how I feel every time I share the first vision and extend the baptismal invitation. One falls so hardly in love for the people and you want so badly that they believe and accept these things so it’s almost scary to hear their reply. He accepted! Now we just need to get him, his wife, and their 6 kids that are of baptism age to accept as well! 

The mission is the best. I can’t believe I have as many weeks left that Elder Christensen has had in the field! I only have 10 weeks left!
 

I love you all so much. Stay sweet!

con todo mi corazon,
Elder Spencer McKee

Jonah, Semana 42 - The Hamster in my Belly

Monday, August 17, 2015

Hey I just want to start out by telling you all I’m sorry because I do not have any pictures this week! I forgot to bring my camera with me to the cyber where I’m writing so sorry....

Apart from that, this week has been very basic! I won’t lie to you it has been a great week but I have zero grand stories to tell you about! I am here sitting in front of the computer screen and I can’t even think of what I want to write but I’m going to write until I actually come up with some type of inspiration! The biggest story I could probably tell you all about is that this week I was laying on my bed sleeping and at about 2 in the morning I woke up with the worst stomach pain in the world!!! I couldn’t sleep anymore and I knew that the night was going to be a long one!!

That happened on Wednesday night! So, really I think I know where it all came from! It started when I was at the house of a less active family! We were there teaching them about the sacrament and how important it is to go to church every Sunday so that we can remember the sacrifice of Christ and the covenants we have made with Him and our Father in Heaven! The lesson was great!!! We taught all of the things we had planned to share and they truly understood why they had to once again attend church on Sunday! My comp and I were happy and after we had ended with a prayer, the couple wanted us to stay and chat for a minute. We knew that this was them trying to give us food so we told them we couldn’t stay! We both got up because we had a lunch scheduled 30 minutes later and they were cooking fish and we didn’t want to eat fish. We told them we had to go and they told us we couldn’t because they were cooking lunch for us! I quickly explained to them that we couldn’t eat because we were going to leave there and make our way to our lunch appointment and it would be bad of us to go to the lunch we had planned with a full stomach! They insisted, and we felt that we had no option but to eat, so we sat down to eat. I won’t lie I love the fish here but sometimes I just don’t want to eat it! That day was one of those times! I ate it all and topped it off with a cup full of coke! About an hour later I started to feel like there was a hamster running on his wheel inside of me. I knew I was going to be sick.

The day continued and the feeling began to go away so I thought that maybe I was wrong!! I drank some pepto bismol and I thought for sure that I was going to be good. I fell sound asleep for a short while but without fail I was awakened up by that hamster running 50 meters dashes in my stomach! Haha! I couldn’t get it to go away, even after drinking more pepto, so I just sat out in another room of the house waiting for the pain to go away! Then I thought, hey I should just go and gag myself, it’ll make it go out and I’ll feel much better, so that’s exactly what I did!!  The toilet was full of pepto bismol, beans, and fish! Haha! I’m sorry for the graphic story but to be honest it was the only thing that happened that was out of the ordinary and worth telling! 

Even with the stomach pains and sickness, I have been most truly happy and I hope you all are too!! I love being here and I am so happy to say I’ll be continuing my adventure here with new sicknesses and new experiences!!

Until next time,

Elder Jonah McKee

Spencer's Take 2, Semana 67 - The Best Last Companion I Ever Had

Monday, August 17, 2015

This week was pretty fun! My great journey started last Sunday. It was a really rainy day and we got soaking wet. We had to buy bus tickets to Santiago because my mini missionary companion had to leave early in the morning Monday. I stayed in an area in Santiago that’s called Palermo with an elder whose name is Elder Harris. He is such a nice, gentle man! Haha! I feel a little homo describing him like that but there are no other words! He enjoys singing, and not just any type of music but music like the Phantom of the Opera and stuff like that. He is awesome! He really is a missionary who is developing a lot of characteristics similar to those of Christ!

My whole mission I have heard about a legendary ice cream that is in Santiago and that it is owned by the stake president. I had the blessing and opportunity to eat there twice in 2 days! It was delicious! I’m going to pitch them a business offer and try and take a branch of the franchise with me to Vegas! It is soooooo good! I really enjoyed my time in Palermo!

Tuesday afternoon we took a bus and it was no short bus ride. It was from Santiago to Salta which is about 10 hours, so that was crazy long. We ate a ton because the sisters that are in my district gave us a bunch of snacks so that was sweet. One of the cool things is that whenever and where ever a bus stops you will hear a man or woman scream, "EMPANADAS!!!!" I’m sure you already know what that means! We took advantage and splurged on our guilty pleasure of some delicious empanadas!

Wednesday was an exciting day! We were presented to our trainees! When they all arrived I took the time to meet them all and to predict which one of them was going to be mine. They were all cool but one of them stood out amongst the rest! He had one thing in common with me! HES FROM VEGAS!  When I found that out, I knew we were going to be companions. President Chaparro loves to put funny companionships together! My companion lives on the side of Summerlin and went to Palo Verde. His name is Elder Christensen and he is a real stud! He plays lacrosse for BYU and is just a real cool guy. We get along really well! My last couple of months are going to fly by smoothly! I love training gringos because they just have the best faces when they come to the reality of where they are and what they are doing!

Thursday was a day full of priceless questions that caused priceless faces! One of my favorite questions that he asked was, “Do we have a dish washer?" I died laughing right there in the middle of the grocery store! He’s a beast. I love him. God lives. This church is led by inspired men. He is going to be the best last companion that I have ever had!!!!!

Love,

Elder Spencer McKee

 Elder Christensen

Spencer and the treats (sent by a member to Elin's Instagram)

Jonah Semana 41 - Nobody's Perfect

Monday, August 10, 2015

Hey mom and dad! I’m super sorry I can’t write much this week! I got super distracted doing some stuff on this new mission website and now I’m out of time!!!

Just to let you know, I am super happy! I was blessed this week to have the honor of baptizing a girl in my district named Luciana! I taught her 2 times while accompanying the sisters here in my district and in the 2nd lesson she asked me if I would be the person to baptize her. I truly do not know why she chose me to do it but I was honored and with excitement I accepted the invite. This Saturday she was baptized at 4:00 it was something very special because she is the second of a family of 11 to be baptized. Luciana is only 14 and was waiting to receive permission from her parents so she could be baptized! After her older sister was baptized without their parent’s permission, they began to take interest in the church and gave Luciana the opportunity to baptize and confirmed a member of the church!

We also had the opportunity this past Wednesday to attend leadership council meetings; all of which were an amazing series of instruction, helping me become a better example, and a better district leader! Not only was I stoked to be there, but what I learned there was something very important. It was nothing new or anything I hadn’t heard before, but this time when I heard the many messages that were being presented, it was different; and that small difference was the Spirit inside of me that made the statement that much stronger!

President Bowler spoke and told us that one of the biggest reasons we were called to be a leader in the mission is because we need to grow and be better or stronger in something. He also told us that we were called to be examples among the others. After the two reasons he gave us as to why we were called, he asked each of us to write a small relationship between the two and he was going to read 3 of the entries we turned in at the end. Once the end of the meetings came around he read my entry saying, "The connection between those two things is that none of us are perfect, every missionary has flaws and needs to grow in some aspect of the mission calling but we are to be examples by showing them we are working to better than our weaknesses." After writing that I began to ponder what are my weaknesses? I came to know that I have a list of them and I don’t need to go around telling you or any of the missionaries I know what they are but I do need to show that I am struggling and fighting to be better. Whether they know my highs and lows in fulfilling my purpose or not they will recognize the effort I put forth to be better.

I would love to invite you all to do the same! I’m not asking you all to go out and share your weaknesses with others but I am asking you to focus on making those weaknesses your strengths. As you do this, I promise that all of the people around you will notice a difference in the light and love you each have inside of you! I’m super thankful that my Father in Heaven has blessed me with weaknesses and I am even more thankful that He has opened my eyes more, allowing me to recognize them.

I love you all more than I can explain and I am so appreciative of the love and support I receive weekly from the emails you all send me! Truly the emails give me strength and determination to become a better me than you have ever known!

Always,

Elder Jonah McKee

Spencer's Take 2, Semana 66 - The Mini Missionary

Monday, August 10, 2015

This week was a rough one! My companion, Elder Rodriguez, the beloved Elder Rodriguez, had some personal things come up and had to go home (Lima, Peru)! If you know me, then you may know that I had an interesting experience at about the 6 month mark of my mission too. Without revealing too much about the personal life of my ex comp, I’ll just say that he is going through what I went through! He’s a beast. I know that he will be back in the mission in no time!

I had to travel all day Tuesday to drop Elder Rodriguez in Salta and then return to Frias. I am with a mini missionary now whose name is Daniel and he is from Jujuy. He’s a cool kid but he is really shy and lacks confidence! He is a convert of just a year but is ready and waiting for his own mission call! I think he’s going to get called to Africa. ;) I passed the week splendidly with him; I had to talk a ton. Sadly we walked most of his time here and his poor feet were covered in blisters!

We had a good week in church this week! We had 25 in attendance! We were able to bring the branch president and his whole family to church! It was the first time in my time here so far! Achievements! Yay!

I love Frias. I miss Elder Rodriguez. I hope he is good.

I love you all. The church is true!

-Elder Spencer McKee

p.s. I don’t know why, but I am in a different cyber café and my chip Works here..... Here are some pics!!!! Danny boy and some delicious food I whipped up the other day!!!!   

Jonah's Semana 40 - I'm in Love

Monday, August 3, 2015

Where to begin? I don’t even know...

I guess I’ll start by saying this, I’m happy! Just for all of you who can’t tell from my letters, I am happy!!!! Do you know why? Don’t worry, I’m gonna tell you! The reason I am so happy is because I am in love!!! I have completely fallen in love with this country and the work of the Lord! I have always been happy to be here but this past couple of weeks I have had something grab me and it has pulled me even deeper into the mission; submersing me even deeper into my objective as a missionary and conviction that I was called to be here and nowhere else in the world.

This Tuesday we had our zone conference with the mission president and in my 9 months of being here, I have never been in a conference like this one. All of the other conferences I have been to have been filled with criticism and filled with long discussions about where we are failing as missionaries. I’m not going to lie, I went into this conference thinking that this was just going to be like the rest of them and that the president and his assistants were just going to shave us super hard again. But, I was wrong. After all of the missionaries had gotten to their seats and the hour reached 10 we began with our opening musical number and a prayer. President then came to the pulpit to begin and he said something that none of us were expecting. He said, "I’m proud of the work you all are doing, keep it up". All of us missionaries were in shock! Each and every one of us were ready to be shaved but instead we received a bunch of positive support and feedback! Along with the positive feedback, we received an invitation to reflect on what we have accomplished and were told to think about how we would be able to be our own ruler and what we need to do to be better. I accepted the invitation and began to reflect on these past 9 months and all I could remember from all of the things I have seen and done were the positive things. My mission has been full of beautiful memories and highlights of my lifetime!

I won’t lie to anybody, I will never go and tell somebody that the mission has been all daisies and roses; but I can honestly say, that I have never been happier! Those moments of sadness and darkness are amazingly outweighed by those numberless gifts of light God has put in my path.

This Sunday, the 2nd of August, I was so very lucky to baptize one of the strongest souls I have ever had the opportunity to meet! It was 2 weeks ago that I wrote you talking about an angel sent from God named Carolina; she was the lady who was sick and paralyzed from the neck down. Well, this week I was privileged and blessed to be able to have been chosen to baptize the last person she introduced to us before passing away. The girl she presented me to is Yosselin and she is 19. From the moment we met Yosselin we knew she was different, she seemed prepped and ready to hear our message, she was full of a light, and primed for harvest. We had intended to help her grow even more and about 10 days ago she said that she wanted to be baptized on Carolina’s birthday to honor and thank her for bringing us to her. I told her that would be perfect and then asked her when Carolina’s birthday was? She told us it was the 2nd of August. That was the moment we said to her we would do all we could to prepare her to be baptized and I won’t lie, it was hard! She had many things to overcome and she has parents who aren’t in favor of her decisions in regards to the church and everything that is related to it. They are the type of people that hate others just because of their faith.

Yosseline knew that, and since the day we showed up to her house with Carolina she heard about it every day from her mom and her dad. But, like I said, she was and is different than a lot of the people we have met during this 9 months. Yosi is a fighter! She told us she was going to be baptized and that she was ready to accept the consequences, whatever they may be, after she is baptized because she knows she won’t be alone and that God will be with her. She said much more but it was incredibly personal and spiritual and I wouldn’t do it justice telling you all about it. I can’t explain it in full detail but I can tell you that she is one of the strongest people God has prepared in His army upon the face of the earth. On Sunday morning, in honor of Carolina, she was baptized and the light she had within her was brighter than ever. I was so blessed to have taken part in this amazing moment in her life and I know she was truly converted to the gospel of Christ!

Every day of these 9 months has been filled with amazing moments and true testimony building experiences and as a result I am in love with this mission, with this country, and with these people I am getting to know daily.

I know that the church is true and if you don’t know then ask God, He will tell you.

Love,

Elder Jonah McKee