Jonah's Semana 59 - I Speak Spanish like a White Guy

Monday, December 14, 2015

Hey mom, don’t sweat! I won’t come home early!! BTW...I actually will be here 2 weeks more than what I had previously thought! The new missionary standards in the MTC have made a change to the time each person will be serving in the mission. I was informed this week that I will now be serving for 20 days more than what was originally thought.

 

I won’t lie I think that is very cool but it will suck for one reason. I am almost positive that now I will be missing 3 Halloweens and not just 2. I know you love that holiday and so do I! I love all of the chili and homemade rolls people always make during that time of year especially at the ward chili cook off! But no worries, all is well and the time has been going incredibly fast! For that reason I know these extra days that were just added on won’t even make a difference in how the 2 years feels! Can you even believe that I only have 10 months left?!?! Well technically 11 months now that the time has been changed but still!!!! The mission is way too fast! I have finally been able to get in on all of the jokes and all of the people understand my Spanish and it’s awesome!!

 

I won’t lie though; I have a super white accent that I need to work on. I guess the other missionaries say it is the whitest accent of all the missionaries but I don’t really care :P I have a wide vocab and people understand me so that is what is important. I will however keep working on the accent but its chill for now. So yea I guess the main thing I can tell you is that I am staying with my white son Elder Rogers and I am very stoked about that! He is an awesome guy and thanks to us both being white it makes the whole Christmas spirit thing like super real! I love him to pieces and not only him but his mom too! Haha. His family sent a big Christmas package and sent me 2 presents inside. I don’t know what they are yet but I’m stoked to find out!

 

Anyways in other news I have been pretty sick as of late! I have been, walking around the past couple of days with diarrhea and not only that but I’ve been throwing up a ton too! Haha. I still however would take the diarrhea and vomiting I’ve been having any day over the abdominal cramps that I started out with! I still however don’t know what I have but me and the mission nurses are pretty much positive I have a parasite.  I mean I have done a year in Honduras and I haven’t had a parasite yet so I guess now it’s my turn to be struck with one!

 

Really though all is well and I have loved my time this week! My comp and I found a good group of new investigators this week and we are very anxious to see how they progress!

 

I love you tons and I hope you’re doing okay!

Elder Jonah McKee

Jonah's Semana 58 - Beach Fun

Monday, December 5, 2015

Hey mom I am soooo sorry but I don’t think I’m going to be able to write you a ton today. We went to the beach and when we had to come back to our area, we missed the 2 o’clock bus and so we had to wait until the 3:30 bus came and the bus didn’t even leave until 4 because it was filling up with gas. Then we got home at about 5:30 and we had to go do some last moment shopping for the groceries for the week and to be honest I probably shouldn’t even be writing you right now because the day ended about 30 minutes ago but I had to write you and explain why. I promise next week I will send a voice message and a good sized email too. I love you.

Anyways, love you tons!!

Elder Jonah McKee

P.S. I can’t send pictures in this area because the computers are so old they can’t even read the format of the pictures my camera takes..... Haha. I am pretty sure these computers are still using Windows XP and its sloooooowwwwwww!!!!!

 

Jonah's Semana 57 - Home Improvements

Monday, November 30, 2015

Hey mom! I’m super glad that Spencer is getting you and the family all cleaned up and spiritual just in time for when I get home! Haha. I and my companion just read that email and we both laughed at the same parts thinking to ourselves that you and the rest of the family are just super special people! Haha I love you guys wayyyy too much!

I can honestly tell you that this Christmas will be one for the record books. My companion and I have been transforming our house into a winter wonderland and it has been quite the adventure! We have begun quite the number of modifications; one of them is a fireplace. It has been lots of fun! I’m sure the house at home has also gone through a grand number of changes. I’m super excited to see how all of your little projects have gone and I’m sure I will hear about even more before I make it home. I must have inherited that gene from you to always be looking for projects. I have been focused on making people my projects more than I have home improvements and I have always had a need to fix people that seem to be a little broken.

I think it’s a blessing to be drawn to fixing broken souls but it’s a sad and painful path to go down when you realize that you just aren’t able to fix them like you really wanted to do. To make matters worse sometimes it’s not even us the fixers who can’t get the job done but it’s the broken hearted, lost soul, who isn’t ready to be fixed or found. I have noticed that many times here in the mission we have to look at those two possibilities and we have to at times come to the realization that we aren’t equipped to take on some of the projects we encounter or at other times the project just needs to be put off for another time. My companion and I are the leaders of a group here in San Marcos and many times I feel like he and I are going to have to make the decision between those two; whether the person is ready to be fixed or not.. At times it’s a very sad thing to come to the knowledge that we weren’t able to bring about the change we wanted to in the lives of those we come to meet but we can at least be comforted by the thought that we put the idea of a self-correction a little bit higher on their to do list.

I love being in the mission and I wouldn’t change the time I have spent here. Not even a second of it. I love you all and I love that Spencer has been able to point out the projects that we should be tackling spiritually in our lives! I hope that each and every one of you remembers that sometimes we need to make improvements to our own lives and not just in the material but also in the spiritual, or in other words the things that actually count. This Christmas should be one to remember and it can be! Just think of 3 spiritual projects you wants to make a priority to accomplish leading up to the Christmas Eve! I promise that if we each think of 3 things we could do better before Christmas then we will be happier and we will have the Christmas spirit with us sooo much more than we could have ever hoped. Not just the Christmas spirit, but, The Spirit of God. It can be something small such as a taking a vulgar word out of our vocabulary, maybe dropping a vice we may have to a certain destructive substance, or just telling people we love them twice the normal count. I know if we change something in our lives then we will feel enlightened.

I love you all,
Elder Jonah McKee

PS There is a new christmas video that has been posted on youtube its called "A SAVIOR IS BORN" go watch the video!! I promise you won't regret it!!! #ASaviorIsBorn

 

Jonah's Semana 56 - Near Death Experience

Monday, November 23, 2015

Hi mom what’s up, how are you doing? Guess what mom, I’m sitting on a tour bus. Remember when we were in Honduras 2 years ago and we had to take a tour bus to Roatan? Well, I’m sitting on a tour bus like that one, but this one is like the one that you had that didn’t have AC. I don’t know if you remember how bad you sweat on these buses, but at least we’re in the mountains so it won’t get too hot. Sometimes it gets really hot but we will only be on it for 1 hour instead of 5 like last time.

Elder Rogers almost died today, well at least he thinks he did, his heart is still racing. He was cleaning out his shoes and a giant millipede fell out of them. It was pretty big. He was about 3 seconds from putting his shoe on when the Spirit told him to clean them out again. When he did, the millipede fell out and it was easily 5 inches. I don’t know what kind of millipede it was, but everyone here is super freaked out by them. They said they are super venomous and that they can kill people. So my companions pretty sure that the Spirit prompted him and it saved his life today. I mean, who cleans their shoes out so many times? He says that when the millipede flew out he thought it was a snake so he called for me. When I got to the room, I told him not to touch it because it could kill him. It was hissing at him, it was on it’s legs and hissing and then it grew wings and started to fly. Elder Rogers says the rattle on its tail was going and it was hissing and then it started breathing fire. Haha. No he really did get close. He almost died, he better go read his scriptures right now.

Today we are going to meet some friends for Pday and play some soccer. It will be great. This week we had a lot of visits and that was cool. Last night we met a girl named Lillian who is a member and she was baptized about 11 years ago. When she got baptized she did it because she had a dream that her step brother baptized her and she thought it was true. She fell away from the church about 3 years ago and says that she is okay where she’s at right now. We challenged her to go back and pray and ask God who sent her a dream if she should go back to the church because He will give her an answer. She said she will pray, she should be coming back soon. We don’t want to push too hard because she’s a little bit stubborn and wants to do things on her own terms, but you know, girl, you gotta do you. J

Yesterday we had 18 people at church. That’s a lot, right mom? Anyways, we need to do better. Hey mom, we’re trying to come up with activity ideas. You know things we can do to create unity. There’s like 100 registered members here, but on a good day, only like 30 of them show up.  So we want to put on some activities to create more unity. We are going to start teaching seminary on Thursdays, teaching English on Fridays and watching movies on Saturdays. Well, we’re going to watch movies if we can figure out how to get a TV. I guess that since we’re a group we don’t have any church funds, so we don’t have any budget to work with. So we’re thinking we’re going to sacrifice the money and buy a computer screen because they’re pretty cheap. We don’t need to be able to run cable or anything through it, just a DVD. So, I think it will be the cheapest option, but we’ll see how it works though.

If you have any good ideas that wouldn’t take much money, tell us. We also don’t have a lot of time, so we can’t do any big meals or anything like that either. We were thinking of doing a photo scavenger hunt, or minute to win it, or something like that.

Okay mom, be safe, be good. I love you tons. Take care. Life is good.

Love,
Elder Jonah McKee

 

 

Jonah's Semana 56 - SAN MARCOS!!!

Monday, November 16, 2015

Hey Mom! What’s up? It’s your boy Mickey. J

So anyways, everything is cool, I just had changes and I’m in San Marcos now. It’s an area that is pretty far from where I was before; it’s an hour and a half away. I’m in the mountains now and I have my first white companion. His name is Elder Rogers and he is from Mesa, Arizona. Mom, everything is good, everything is awesome. I don’t know what to report to you because I’m so new here, but it is awesome! This area looks a lot like the first area I was in, Parariso, but it’s not the same, there are a lot of mountains. I’m pretty sure my thighs are going to get so big and bust through the seams of my pants from climbing up all these mountains, and if not my butt will. It might just burst out of the seams in these pairs of pants I’ve got. Just keep on the lookout for some good, cheap pants because you might have to send me some in a minute. Haha.

Anyways, Christmas is coming and that’s cool because I’ve got a white comp. It will be so awesome to spend it with Elder Rogers. It would be even cooler if I had my package but you know, that’s fine too. I mean you guys are cool and all, I love you both. Just remember, I’m the only missionary in the family now, you know, show me some love, lol.

I’m glad Spencer’s home, it sounds like he’s having fun. Tell him not to get married before I get home because if he does I’ll hate him and won’t let my kids know that he exists. I need to know his wife before he marries her so that I can make sure she’s not crazy. Just make sure that he doesn’t marry that girl he’s gone out with, because I really want to get to know her first. Tell him if he gets into my shoes, that’s chill, just don’t scuff them up. J

All is well, all is well. I am feeling much better, it’s been a relief. I am training once again but I’m just finishing Elder Rogers training so I’m not his real dad, I’m just a step dad I guess. I’m still district leader, and that’s kind of crazy, but what are you gonna do, you just got to love the people. It’s super cold here at night, so I’m probably going to get a jacket. Just a thin one, like a sweater.

It’s nice here. The church is a group here, not even a branch, its super small. This Sunday my companion and I spoke in sacrament meeting along with our convert of 6 weeks. We all spoke about family and it was pretty cool. I guess that I am supposed to be the person that assigns talks in church and all that stuff. I don’t have a calling because it’s just a group, but I guess if it were a branch, I would be the first counselor. So, yeah, it’s going to be fun. This week we only had 25 people in church but we’re going to try to have 50 before Christmas so that our Christmas here will be awesome! It will be one to remember here in San Marcos!

Tell the family that I really appreciated how much they wrote me this week. :P I think that I got one sentence from you, telling me you were really tired, but that you loved me, so I guess that’s good. I didn’t get anything from Elin and Alec. But hey, that’s ok, Spencer’s home and you love him more, haha. Don’t worry; I’m not trying to have a pity party for myself or anything, haha.

Next week I will write you a more detailed message, but since I only got one sentence from you, I guess it’s fair. Oh, hey, I just got your message. Sweet! I love you. Everything’s good.

Stay sweet,

Elder Jonah McKee

 

 

Jonah's Semana 55 - Staying on Dry Ground

Monday, November 9, 2015

Hi mom! I promise you don’t need to worry about me being disobedient or anything like that. I have been trying very hard to stay focused on the rules and I figure that no matter what I’ll at least be free of any punishment that comes our way because I stay on dry ground and I’m afraid to put my toes in the water to feel how it is. I don’t want you to worry for me! I am going to be okay!!

I have come to the realization that the main reason I was ever even stressed was because I am afraid of leaving my companion in the area. I have just spent soo much time trying to turn it around and make it into a progressing area. I talked to him recently and asked him if he could please just be nice and courteous and maintain the area at the level I leave it and not shoot all of it down into the dirt and he agreed. I know he is disobedient but he for some reason respects me and so I know he will be able to honor my last wish of him. I will be able to leave without regret and that’s something that is so heartwarming.

I love you tons and I hope you and the family had an amazing weekend!! I’m sorry I never said happy birthday last week I just always forget to mention the things that will be coming up in my letters home because I’m always writing about what had just passed…

Well yea! Love you

Elder Jonah McKee

Jonah's Semana 54 - It's not all Butterflies and Cakewalks

Monday, November 2, 2015

Hey mom I guess you are partially right. I have been struggling for about a month now from hearing that a friend is seriously considering going home and that he doesn’t feel that he is making a difference to hearing every week that Spencer is going to be home and how badly I would love to see him.

A combination of things has occupied my mind and all of its empty cavities. I can see and feel that my level of joy has gone down and I know why it’s happening, the only problem is that I can’t do anything to change most of those things. I have a battle within me that’s taking place and I am coming to learn it’s just like a big hump. In all things you have humps. From a hump day every week to those last 10 lbs, one can never seem to lose after killing yourself every day in the gym for hours and hours. I feel like the more accurate of those two comparisons is definitely the one about weight cutting but it’s the truth. I have been killing myself for a year basically running between houses just to spend every second of my time teaching and declaring this message to all those who are ready to hear it.

Now, I have a year of doing that and I feel like the fire and the gains I had have withered. I am trying to become reanimated but it’s very hard when I constantly have a companion at my side that is trying to do the exact opposite and is not working towards becoming a bigger and better missionary. At every corner or at every chance that sin offers him to convince me to break the rules, he tries. Whether it is go to a party or ask me what I thought about a girl in a physical sense. I have been suffering and I know it. I am trying my best to be strong but I don’t know how much more weight I can take and continue to walk with strength and bliss in every step. I’m struggling and I can honestly say that I have been doing an incredible job of fighting the voice I constantly hear coming from my comp telling me to be a rebel but I don’t know how much more I will be able to ignore before it gets to be too hard. I only have to survive 10 days more with this dead weight companion but I know these 10 days is going to be difficult.

I have been struggling. I’m sorry I haven’t been writing home every week it’s just that it’s hard to pretend all is butterflies and cakewalks when that’s not true. I don’t think I’m gonna write a general this week either but I know I am going to get over this hump because I always have. Please don’t forget me in your prayers and also don’t be afraid to put my friend into them too! He needs us and I need him to have the strength to continue so that I can have peace of mind.

I found a new family 2 weeks ago and I know that they are going to be key in helping me reboot myself into mission shape once again but it’s going to be harder than I think. I promise I won’t give up but I need you to try to understand I’m in a rough patch and I need some direction.

Always,
Elder Jonah McKee

Jonah's Semana 53 - Time is Flying!

 

Monday, October 26, 2015

Hey how’s life?

I am almost positive that after reading that question, nobody actually stopped to think, "Hmm, how is my life?"  Its fine, it’s not too late to do exactly that. Take a moment and think to yourself, “how am I and where am I going?” I think you might just surprise yourself with what you find. I know that sometimes we feel like we need to do everything
quickly because the world is moving incredibly fast but we don’t have to be a part of the current.

I once saw a movie called Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and in the movie there is a quote that I have always loved and it says:

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around for a while, you could miss it."

I recently just applied that to my mission. I just finished a year and now I am at the half way point. If anything about that quote is true then it’s the fact that life moves pretty quickly. I don’t know how a year has gone by sooo rapidly! It is as if I had only shut my eyes to go to sleep had an incredible dream and woke up. Now, here I am.

I decided to look around and decide if I am satisfied with my mission up to this
point or not and what direction I am taking. I know I have become a much better disciple of Christ since I have left but I’m not completely done learning and growing just yet. I now only have a year left to learn all of the lessons I know I am supposed to learn throughout this time and I’m going to try my very hardest to do just that.  

I know you all have goals of your own and that you’re all extremely blessed to be wherever you are while you’re sitting there reading this email but I want to invite you all to think about what your goals and are you progressing towards them or not. Life goes quickly so don’t hesitate to pursue your greatest hopes and dreams today.

I love you all and I want you to know I am safe and well.

Love,
Elder Jonah McKee