Jonah's Semana 47 - Building the Kingdom, One Adobe House at a Time

Monday, September 21, 2015

Hey everybody I just want to start out by telling you all that this week has been a great one! Luckily this week truly turned around for us and we were almost too busy to even know where our time all went! It was truly a blessing to see how much work we had to do this week and how much support we have had from the ward! Finally I feel like the ward, which has had a lot of bad missionaries pass by, is starting to recognize that we are here to get stuff done and not just to pass the time by! Haha.  It’s only taken them 8 baptisms and 4 months to recognize it but finally they are starting to support us in visits and in the big service projects I feel like we almost always have our hands in!

This week started off very average, working everyday doing the everyday work like contacting, teaching, and retaining lost members. Little by little though, the week began to become a hill and the hill was made up of work. My comp and I thought about it and after a few moments we decided we could do one of two things, we could walk up the hill and see how far we would get by the end of the week or we could run and get the farthest our bodies could carry us! By Thursday our work all truly began to pay off with a few new families to begin teaching and a huge service project that turned out to be a giant success!

We as missionaries have been working with this one family, that is the family Rodriguez, and they are a family full of less actives. We have been working with them for about 2 months trying to reactivate them and almost always we are doing little acts of service for them and doing all we can to help them. This week we were so blessed to be given the opportunity to build them an adobe house made out of mud. Luckily, we had the help of the Elder’s Quorum, who with the help of the new president has become a huge help to us! The service project began at 7 in the morning and we worked all morning and afternoon making mud and plastering it over the stick walls we had made just the week before!! The work was long and it was extremely difficult but with time and lots of physical sacrifice we were able to finish the project and give them a new home to live in!! I love service!!

Truly I wish I had more to say and I really do, but I don’t have the time I need to say it all!! I just want to tell you all that this week has been amazing and I love you all!!

Love,

Elder Jonah McKee

Spencer's Take 2, Semana 72 - The Last Samurai... I mean Transfer!

Monday, September 22, 2015

The last week of my second to last transfer! Crazy. It was a great week. It’s so weird because we taught only a total of 7 lessons this week but we had 4 investigators in church and an attendance of 31!!!! We are seeing miracles here in Frias!

The Rodriguez family is progressing by huge bounds! They aren’t married, like everybody else in Argentina, so we finally got to the point where we had to pull out the life or death lesson, the law of chastity! They accepted every commitment with surprising ease! They have a date set to be baptized on the 17 of October so that is pretty sick! They are a family of 11; seven have the age to be baptized! The branch is going to double in size with them as members! I love them so much! They have the cutest little girls in that family! The latest news of them is that they have been memorizing the 10 commandments! 

We are also seeing big progress with Marilin. She also has to get married but they already have a date to be married on the 16th. She and her member boyfriend are pretty stoked. The members are helping us a ton with their progress and helping them feel welcome and part of the rock of Christ!

This week I learned a huge lesson. I was in Santiago on divisions with the zone leaders and after getting off of a bus I realized that I had lost my agenda. It’s nothing big but for me it was devastating! I was bummed to say the least. Elder Christensen and the zone leaders told me to pray about it but I told them that it was already over. Let’s just say that I lost the faith! I didn’t pray. I went 3 days just bummed about the loss of a mission treasure and then.... all of a sudden..... on Friday.... while verifying with the sisters in my district...... they started asking me weird questions like who is this and that person, how was soccer last p day,.... and then it hit me! THEY HAD MY AGENDA IN THIER HANDS!!!!!!!! At first I almost peed my pants from happiness but then I realized, "But wait, how? I didn’t pray?" God really taught me a huge lesson. I learned that for God, nothing is too insignificant if it is a matter of the happiness of one of his children! I will never doubt the power of prayer! Or the mercy of God.

It’s funny how God works and the huge lessons that I learn from simple things in life! It turns out that a less active member got on the same bus I had been on and just happened to sit in the same seat. She felt something under her butt and opened up the cover only to find my name. It was then passed through the hands of some other people and tomorrow it will be in my hands once again!!!!!! 

God is love. Nothing is too dumb to not be important to God. He knows each one of us personally by name and He hurts when we hurt and is happy when we are happy.

The church is true.

Love,
Elder Spencer McKee

  The O.G. Elder McKee aka Elder McKee como mickey mouse!!!!

 

There was a sick concert in the plaza Saturday and Sunday!

  That’s our pet wolf.

 

 My companion busted his shin playing soccer!!!! He said I did it but 

 somehow have no memory of such offense nor a scratch!

Jonah's Semana 46 - It Was a Rough One!

Monday, September 14, 2015

This week was a pretty rough one! I don’t know why but there have been a ton of things falling thorough for us lately! Like, members we are planning to teach with are just deciding at the last moment that they don’t want to go anymore. Or we have also had an investigator tell us she doesn’t want to be baptized anymore on the day of her interview! Haha. She never even told us, she just told the Zone Leader that was doing her interview that she changed her mind and that she doesn’t feel like following through with baptism. I won’t lie, that makes a week pretty hard for one to comprehend.

Besides those low notes, the week was very basic and empty. We had a small handful of lessons but we had to drop a good majority of the people we have been teaching! It’s always rough doing that because as a missionary all I want is to see those people return to the walkway that Christ showed us but I am only here to guide them back to Him. I can’t force them and I can’t take their agency even though sometimes I really want to try doing both of those things because I know it’s only for their better good! 

It almost feels like every time we have to drop teaching somebody I have to take a 50 lb weight and carry it over my shoulders. This week I feel like I have been walking with 450lbs on my shoulders and it’s been rough. I know that there will always be weeks like this in the mission just like there will always be good and bad weeks in everyday life but man sometimes those bad weeks take a lot out of you and make the good weeks hard to recognize. Luckily, I know I am doing all I can do and all that anybody can ask of us is that we work our hardest every day! I will continue working hard and I’m going to try to find a little bit more of me that I can throw into the work alongside everything I have already been giving so that with hope and sacrifice this next week will turn around for the better!

I know that this is the true church and that we are here to spread a message of love and hope. I love God and I love Christ, my Savior and I know that they love me.  So at the end of this rough week, I can say with a surety that my Father and my Brother that are in heaven were there with me through it all and that they felt everything that I felt. All of the pain, sorrow, and heartache that I felt, they did too! I know that they want me to have success so I know that they are going to give me the strength I need to turn it all around! I love you all and I want you all to remember that no matter how we feel, whether it is alone or full of a heavy heart then just know God is with you and He knows how you feel. Turn to Him and He will comfort you.

Always,

Elder Jonah McKee

ps. Thanks to all those of you who write me!! It truly helps me to feel the love and support I have behind me always! Also if you feel like writing me a little more than that would be cool too!

Spencer's Take 2, Semana 71 - Moving!

Monday, September 14, 2015

This week has been a good one! I think that Elder Christensen is starting to get tired of me a little bit. I recognize that I’m not a perfect missionary but I do try a lot; sometimes more than others but I think that I’m a good missionary. I think that Heavenly Father would agree.

I had a bunch of people put me on check this week!  There are a lot of people from Syria here in Frias and I was talking to one the other day and I asked him if it was hard to speak Arabic. He said that you have to be the son of an Arab to learn it. I jokingly replied by saying "I accept your challenge!" and then he said something like, “I would focus more on the Spanish if I were your first...." he burned me pretty hard! A funny/ harsh difference here and the states is that in the states if a foreigner speaks even the worst English we would tell them how awesome they spoke. Here in Argentina, if you make one mistake or have an accent even slightly different than theirs, they are going to wreck your life and make you want to quit speaking forever! Whatever.

We spent a ton of time this week changing houses. The house that we were in was really old and was falling apart little by little. Plus the owner bumped  up the rent so we decided it was best to leave. We found a nice house not too far away for a lower price and the best part is....... it has air conditioning!!!!! I remember that when I first got here to Argentina I could hardly sleep because there were so many dogs barking throughout the night. Now, in my advanced age and experience, I don’t even recognize the constant thunder of barks that, according to Elder Christensen, constantly rumbles. He goes a little crazy because in our new house our neighbor has a really annoying gang of dogs that like to bark for no apparent reason.

Another funny thing that happened this week was a bet I made. The branch president’s son Damian has an earring. I am a fan, by birth right, of a soccer team called River Plate and the whole Voitina family (branch president’s family) is fanatics of the rival team called Boca Juniors. Yesterday, Sunday, after eating lunch with them I made a bet with Damian that if River won he had to take out his earring and if Boca won I would change teams. He agreed and I thought that God would somehow give the benefit to River because it was a righteous bet! I was soooo confident that River was going to win. Besides the righteous bet that was in God’s favor, River has been playing really, reallyyyy good lately and Boca not so much. I’m sure you can guess how the game turned out..... BOCA 1 - 0 RIVER!!!! So I guess I’m a Boca fan now? I feel like an apostate man but at the same time I feel like, since I’m from Vegas and gambling and betting are like our national sports, I have to honor my word. AGUANTE BOCA!!!!

Sunday was a miracle filled day! We had 4 investigators in the church! Marilin who will be married to her member husband in October and then baptized the 17th and Jose Rodriguez and 2 of his daughters!!!! I love the Rodriguez family soooo much! It’s been a while now that we have been waiting for them to act and come to church! Sadly, we had to go and look for them for them to come, which is not as satisfying as when they come by themselves, but it was good that he finally came and felt the spirit and saw how the church really is!

In other news, the Frias branch since forever has been part of the mission; not the Santiago stake. When I first got here we did the papers to try and transfer over and be part of the stake in hopes that it would help us with support and more attention and yesterday Presidente Voitina made the announcement that the change was made! Yay! I know the stake president pretty well. He’s the man! So I’m excited to have him and his support! 

I love life. I love the mission! I can’t believe I only have 7 weeks left..... Time is so valuable and goes away fast! I love you all so much! Take care!

Elder Spencer McKee

fotos: Here in Argentina trash cans don’t exist; those basket things do. Sometimes if you have bad luck the neighborhood band of street rat dogs gets into the trash; at least.... that’s what we thought..... It has been the horses the whole time! You bet your bottom dollar that we pegged him with his fair share of rocks!!!!

We had zone training this week. On the front row is my district! Elder Christensen and I, Hermana Zaldarriaga, Jara, Garcia and Stewart and then there are the zone leaders Elder Moyano and Hampton. we are the OG`s of the Argentina Salta mission!

My baby boy Elder C kickin it in the new house and us at the starting line of what seems to be a mid-city motocross race? Argentina...... 

Jonah's Semana 45 - The Rain Is Coming, The Rain Is Coming!

Monday, September 7, 2011

This week was good, I guess. We had a pretty average week, it was definitely the most normal week I’ve had this change. This change I feel I’ve been full of homework assignments for my district. And even this week, I feel like finally people are starting to understand that I’m here to be the best district leader that I can be. I’m here to do whatever they need as long as it’s actually things they need me to do for them. So, I feel like they are really understanding that I really am here to help and I’m not just saying that. They have been putting that to practice lately. I don’t have any problem with it, it’s been nice to have a little bit of change in the work. For example, me and my J, Elder Arzu, we went to a place called shrimpfo which is about 1 ½ hours away from where we live. Then we went to cargo express and picked up tithing stuff for one of the branches and that was great because it helps the work to progress. And then while I was there I conducted a baptism interview which was good because it means that the branch is growing. I don’t know why I’m talking about Friday, I should probably talk about Monday first.

So Monday we went to this place called the Pena. It’s like a giant mountain that we hiked. On the top is a soccer field that someone built up there and we just sat around and talked as a zone because the person who was supposed to bring the soccer ball forgot to bring it. It was pretty fun to get to know each other better, and I think I sent a picture that we took up there, it was like a zone selfie. We were just sitting on the side of a cliff when we were up there. It was fun to take a nice a little trip and breathe the mountain air of Honduras. I like the Pena a lot, it is kind of like the Mount Timpanogas hike for the steepness but it was on all gravel and dirt so it made it a bit tougher. It seemed like you would step 3 feet forward and your foot would slip a foot back. It was really fun. After the hike, we ate at Wendy’s as always. There are only 4 restaurants here: Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, Little Ceasars, and this place called Churasco’s which is like a Guatemalan taco shop. We don’t eat there very often because it’s pretty spicy and not many people like it but I love it there! I will probably go there tomorrow.

 It started to rain this week.  The rain is coming, the rain is coming! Everyone has been waiting for the rain and it’s finally coming. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday it rained. I guess we are supposed to expect every day. I will have to whip out my umbrella because even with the rain it is super-hot here. If I wear my rain jacket I will be a sweaty mess in there!

Tuesday we went to finish up a final lesson with a couple of investigators but when we got there they had some more questions. So we ended up postponing their baptism so we could address all their questions. I think that is super important. My goal here is not to have high numbers of baptisms, my goal is to have great converts that will have lots of generations that will be super strong in the gospel. That’s really important me because you may just baptize one, but in reality, you’ve converted hundreds.

On Wednesday, my companion started having problems with his eye. I think he just has super sensitive eyes to the light or something because everytime we go out into the sunlight, he gets really bad migraines. We saw the doctor and mission nurse and she told us to go back in the house and relax for that day. I read a little bit and watched a movie.

Thursday we had Zone meeting and taught a couple of investigators. It was a nice conference because I didn’t have to prepare a lesson, I just got to sit and listen for once. The zone leaders said we had been doing a good job with obedience to the big things and then they taught us about being obedient to small things. So this week we are trying to focus on those little rules that don’t seem that important but can make a difference. I felt like the message was good, but I wish they would have given more support for the zone with their success and obedience they are already having. I think it helps with motivation for the missionaries if they get that positive feedback and encouragement.

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. On Tuesday, the AP’s called. They asked me some questions about my area and how the work was going and then they said we have 2 things to tell you, do you want to know the good one or the bad one first? I said tell me the bad one first. They said, well you might not be in your area much longer. And I said, well what’s up with that? And they said, don’t worry, you’ll find out when we tell you the second one.  They said so at interviews this week you’ll know why you won’t be in your area. So, they were telling me that in interviews on Thursday, the President is going to talk to me about the next assignment he has prepared for me.  And I’m not sure if they’re saying I’m going to leave before the change comes or if I’m going to be here for the next 4 weeks but I guess we’ll see how that goes. I’m a little bit scared about what that could be because I could end up going to the office and being the executive secretary or the president’s secretary or AP or to a new area and opening it. All those possibilities are pretty scary and pretty big. My whole zone has been messing with me, and I’m not gonna lie, I wish they wouldn’t have called me because I’ve been stressing about it. I will always do whatever they ask me to do, but if I could choose, I would want to be a normal missionary and work in the field. But it’s not my choice; I will serve wherever I am needed.

Well, continuing on… Thursday we taught a lot. It was a pretty average day and we ran around a lot. On Friday, I told you we did a baptism interview and we ran a lot of errands for the missionaries.

On Saturday, we went to the doctor for my companion. He got some eye drops and we’re not really sure why the doctor gave them because he didn’t really say anything. But we decided that it wasn’t that important because he would have told us something if it was really important.

Anyway, I’m a happy camper. I have been able to spend a lot more time in my area over the last two weeks and that has been great! I can see the fruits of our labor and we are going to have a baptism this next week.

I love you guys! Thank you so much for all that you are doing. For all the emails you write me and all the support you send. It’s a huge blessing to hear about all your lives and how you are doing. It helps me find a better direction of who I want to be when I get home and what I need to do here to become that person I need to be.  I love hearing about your families, about your lives and hearing about how truly happy you are. It helps me to know what kind of a person I want to be later on. You guys are great! Stay strong!

Love you,

Elder Jonah McKee

Spencer's Take 2, Semana 70 - Attack of El Perro

Monday, September 7, 2015

This week was awesome! Well, to begin, I would like to share a sad, sad story.... I, Elder Spencer James McKee have gone 22 months in my mission without being bitten by even one dog! But, sadly, everything comes to an end! I have bragged to soooooo many missionaries that I have never been bitten. I have not had one companion that hasn’t been bit before. It’s super normal here due to the extreme amount of feral street dogs that patrol the streets.

Last Monday, we were walking to play soccer and we took the same route that we take every single day. We did not do anything out of the norm to whatsoever provoke these dogs. We were walking on the side walk in front of their house and once we got within 3 feet of them they went berserk and just darted at me like some coiled up jungle vipers! Luckily my fight or flight switch is always set on the fight setting so I was prepared! The first dog that lanced itself to get a taste of my beefy legs was surprised by a big fat falcon kick to the face! I was so jacked up on adrenaline because I had been drinking green tea all day that I didn’t really assess the damage that I had done in that instant to that poor dog but according to Elder Christensen, who somehow teleported a half block away in the heat of the moment, he said that the dog got at least 3 feet of air! My kicks are powerful but I guess I need to work on the recoil. As I was waiting for the recoil of my leg after destroying the first dog, the second and much larger dog took his best shot! I thought my leg was going to meet his face before his face met my leg but he barely beat me! The hood rat barely nicked me! But you bet your bottom dollar that I gave him his!

They both retreated after getting a taste of the ol` boot which left me to assess the situation. I peered down to evaluate the damage the big dog had caused me. It was minor but there was blood. I immediately began to follow protocol and clapped my hands to summon the owners out of their home. Luckily, in my case the owners were really nice people. Usually if you get bit, the owners will tell you, basically to get lost and to not come close to the dog again. These owners were super nice and friendly and offered to take me to the hospital and all that good stuff. All I asked for was some alcohol, gauze and a ride to the soccer field!!!! They happily obliged. As they were cleaning my battle wound the dogs somehow escaped again and darted out of the door!

 I thought I was about to have round 2 with those two hooligans but for some strange reason they blew passed me and went straight for Elder Christensen! He ran at half speed not thinking they were really going to chase him but once he realized they were with blood in their eyes he started to run for his life! I have never seen someone run soooo fast! It was such a speed that it seemed to be in slow motion! Every morning he works out with these bands that he hooks up to his legs and they help him with his leg strength and he specifically does it because he wants to be able to dunk. That day those resistance bands may have saved his life! He jumped sooooo high and within a split second he was on top of a wall! From my point of view it looked like the bigger dog might have nibbled his leg a little bit but it didn’t. It definitely did bump his leg as he jumped and caused his leg to smack against a small little pre wall that was there. It left him a nice little dent in his leg!

Once I realized that my companion had just avoided certain death I went into attack mode! I booked it after the two dogs with vengeance flowing in my veins! I just about took the bigger dogs head off but luckily he dodged my kick. Then I took after the smaller of the two and he made it inside the house. I may not have gotten any more hits in on the two but the owner of the dogs followed them inside and all you could hear were some cries from some beaten dogs! They took us to soccer and we are safe to say that all is well today. The only thing that Sister Chaparro said to do was to go back in 10 days to see if the dog is alive or not. If not, I need medical treatment asap she says. We seriously die laughing when we think of that massacre!

On another note, we had a good week! We finally have met the entire Rodriguez family. They are so awesome. They have yet to make it to church which just blows my mind because they live just across the street but I'm sure they have their reasons! We are working with some other really cool people. Another guy we are working with is named Juan Pedro. He is so funny because every time we go to teach him we find him sitting on a ledge in front of his house and he always acts like he has no idea what we are doing there. We have to remind him every time that we want to teach him about God and help him follow Christ by being baptized. In the beginning of every lesson he is so weird like that but by the end he just loves us! Yesterday we taught him and when we invited him to pray about Joseph Smith he came out saying that he already believes in him and has for 30 years! Apparently he came to know the church in Cordoba a while back. He said goodbye to us with an awkward shoulder grab to me and a big fat toothless kiss dead smack on the cheek of Elder Christensen! It’s so funny because due to his toothlessness he is super hard to understand. Elder Christensen hardly understands anything he says.

Well, life is good. I love you guys! Thanks for the prayers, they are always appreciated! I hope you have a splendid week!

con muchos besitos,

Elder Spencer McKee

 My war wound from the dog

 Elder Christensen's war wound from the wall

 I love the mail!

 Me and Elder Christensen