Jonah Semana 68 - Prayer is a Powerful Thing!

Monday, February 29, 2016

Hey mom!! I missed hearing from you this week! I heard you have been preparing to go to Rio and that's soo cool! I love the idea of traveling all over the place and meeting my brothers and sisters that are all over the world! Really it just brings me so much peace to know the plan that God has for me and for all of us as His Spirit Children! I love our Heavenly Father with all of my heart and I love reading the scriptures. 

Since I received the package from you all I have had that smaller Book of Mormon which I carry on the daily and every time I sit down in a house or anywhere and i'ts not with the intention of teaching a lesson to investigators then I pull out my Book of Mormon and I read 10 verses. In just 3 weeks I read the entire Book of Alma and I was super afraid that while reading Alma I was going to burn out but I didn't! I powered through it and all of the wars it talks about and now I just truly admire so much the missionary Ammon. He was such a good guy that truly was a huge example of service and teaching with clarity. Since reading the Book of Mormon once again I have learned two things! First is that I love speaking very frankly about things like Jacob does in 2 Nephi 9 it says that his soul delights in plainness. I am a strong believer that my soul also delights in plainness. Second is that I am not the teacher but the teacher is God and no matter what if I am teaching and the person receiving our message has any questions or doubts then we should pray in that very instant so God can clear that thing in their minds. Prayer is a great and powerful thing and I know that when we use that tool that God gave us then we will be blessed in many miraculous ways! 

This week my companion and I started to work in a part of the area that I had never even once set foot in before because all of the people here say that that place is dangerous and I was afraid. But this week we focused our time and energy in finding new people to teach over there and we were blessed! We found 3 new families and I truly have the faith that if they continue as they are now, then they will be baptized. I know they most likely won't be baptized during my time here but I know with patience they will enter into the covenant house.

Really though this week has been awesome. Today we had our pday activity up here in the area and we invited another zone to come up and hang out with us! In total there were about 30 missionaries in San Marcos today and it was super fun! We all went to this one place called the house of teens and there we played some ping pong and pool! It was super chill and everybody had a blast! I know I am not the only one who was deprived of playing pool since they left US soil and so for that reason it was a ton of fun to play after a whole 17 months of not even seeing a table! I love being in the company of good people because it's always a good time! Truly I know that with good company and good intentions there are bound to be made good memories! I wont forget today and I know I don't want the day to end but all good things have to end so a new one can begin. I love you all and I miss your faces!

Always,

Elder Jonah McKee

Jonah Semana 67 -- Meetings in Tegucigalpa

Monday,February 22, 2016

Dang mom, I can’t believe that guy died!! I think I told you about the time I gave a blessing and told a girl she would have time to say goodbye but afterward she would be joining God. It’s pretty whack the things that leave one’s mouth when they give truly inspired blessings! But hey it’s cool! 

SO this week we had a meeting in Tegucigalpa as a group of trainers and newbies! It was fun to be able to go up to Teguc because I seriously love the kids that are training right now!! Really though I have so many friends that are training! So on Friday I basically spent 9 hours on a bus chit chatting with my buds here in the mission!

I really don’t know what the purpose of the meeting was because it was mostly just reading the first 3 pages of the “Preach my Gospel” book and then we ate and left. It was good maybe for the new kids because they got to see President Bowler and his wife as the leaders and the heads of the mission and that’s always good for them to see but besides that I really didn’t see any reason for us spending so much time to go up there and receive such little new instruction, but hey! I don’t receive revelation for the mission so maybe there was a much bigger purpose to it all then I thought! After all, like I said, I enjoyed chit chatting on the bus!

Besides the meeting this week I must say that I was rather disappointed. One of our investigators who has been progressing so rapidly recently stopped answering our phone calls and stopped almost all communication with us and that sucks super bad because he’s great!! He asked us for a Book of Mormon in the street one night and since then he has read up to Alma! He is awesome! And I thought he was going to be my first baptism here in this city but I don’t know now... I have been praying day and night to know how I can reach out to him but I’m lost. Please keep us in your mind and prayers because we need the blessings right now.

I love you mom and I always will!! Also thanks soooo much for the package!

Love,

Elder Jonah McKee

Jonah's Semana 66 - My Third Son

Monday, February 8, 2016

Hey mom, so I guess this week has been a pretty good one!! On Tuesday, I had to go to the capital and I started my bus ride all alone!! Haha, did you know that?!!?! Literally, for like 10 minutes, I was all alone on the bus and that was chill! However, I still don't know how this happened, but somehow I got tasked by the Zone Leaders, who were supposed to be in charge of the bus organization and trip, to take all of that responsibility and that was whack!! Haha, I thought I knew how to do it all because I always watched them so I thought I could do it without a problem but I was wrong!! This time wasn't like the other times! Haha, well to start off I should explain that this bus was full of trainers and new missionaries and that's it!! All of the new missionaries had their bags and they were all a little shell shocked because they had literally landed in the country only hours before and so none of them really knew where they were going or how to take care of their stuff. So a ton of people were asking me to help their kids get their stuff and all of that and in the end there were a ton of things left on the bus from both sisters and elders and it was awesome!!! Haha, I tried to find out who it all belonged to but in the end, I just left a lot of stuff at the ZL's house and told them it was in their hands now. 

I won't lie, I did enjoy the bus ride a lot and I will be going up again tomorrow for a leadership workshop!! Hopefully that will be fun too...?

But I mean I am sure it will! Really though, I should back up for a second. I really enjoy being able to train m new kid! His name is Elder Aguilar and he is from Puebla, Mexico. he isn't super familiar with the scriptures but it's fine because every single missionary has glitches when they enter the field and my big glitch was definitely that I could not speak Spanish at all! Now I feel like I can speak sufficiently and that's good, but I still have a lot of work to do before I am 100% fluent. Luckily, my new kid is Mexican and Mexicans speak very fast and  during this 2 month I'll be passing with him, I know my Spanish is going to sharpen up a lot! Also, I know I'm going to become a whole lot more familiar with the scriptures as I teach Elder Aguilar to navigate them. All in all, I think he is going to be a good companion because we are very different and I think that's IMPORTANT!!!! This week we found a ton of new investigators and we have a couple of people we really think might get baptized. Only the Lord really knows, but we have faith that we can help Him make it all happen so that more of His sheep will make their way home. 

But yeah, tomorrow I'm gonna be going up to Tegucigalpa and getting instruction on how to be a better and more effective leader and so that will be fun too! Also, I hope that tomorrow I get my package because if I don't then I'll have to wait till March!!! Haha, I've already waited 9 months for this package and if I have to wait another one, then I think I'll just be better off never expecting it to get to me! But I guess I'll see!

Love you a ton mom and I hope you have a great Valentine's Day!!!

Elder Jonah McKee

Hey I am fine now. I had a pretty gnarly fever, but I did everything I could to get rid of it! BTW, I recently heard that the virus I had is now worldwide??? Anyways, I had the Zika virus! Don't worry, I am okay and now I'm working as strong as ever.

Jonah's Semana 65 - Coffee and Cows

Monday, February 1, 2016 

Hey there! Everything is good here. How’s it over there? This week has been a pretty fun one!

This week in church we had three male investigators come and that is awesome!! They all have a baptism date and that means potential priesthood! Up in San Marcos that is something we seriously need desperately! For the moment my companion, the group president, and I are the only priesthood holders that are active. And unfortunately, none of the other men really want to come back to church so that is hard but now we have three potential priesthood holders!  I'm stoked about it!

Also today is the day of changes! I am going to be continuing in San Marcos and I'm gonna be training! This will be my third son here in the mission and I'm super excited to see how that all works out for me! Training can be very stressful sometimes, especially when your new companion is not one who wants to work or came onto the mission for the wrong reasons! I am hoping and praying that whoever I am going to be teaching is going to be willing to listen to me and my counsels! But, I guess tomorrow once I get to the capital then I'll know who he is!! Exciting right?!

Well, this week was a pretty good one I guess. There wasn't anything super duper exciting that happened but we did have a pretty fun opportunity to go and see the cow herds of one of our new investigators! His name is Jose and he is sooo funny! I think the best way to describe him would be by saying he acts just like Mr Fredrickson from the movie UP and I just love the guy! But yea so on Saturday morning we went up with him to go see his cows and all of his land,which by the way is 90 acres, also he showed us his coffee plants!! Haha.  He taught us about why coffee grows so well in Honduras and about how he and many others here ship their coffee to the states to big companies like Starbucks that buy their coffee from here! He also showed us how to pick and strip coffee! Haha, I never once thought in my life that as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints I would learn so much about coffee! Haha. I guess it was just one of those many unexpected lessons i learned here in the field. Truly though it was a lot of fun to go up there and learn all about him and tend to his cows and he worked the land with him. As we were leaving it was funny because he sat us down and told us that this was the promised land and so we affirmed everything he was saying with scripture and it was awesome to see him come to the realization that he has always known a simple truth he just wasn't ever sure of it! That moment we were with him he had more light enter into him and now he knows.

I really do love being here as a missionary and always helping others to come to know these simple things. I love the church so much and I know God loves each and every one of us! Also I know that Jose, our investigator, knows now that God blesses us because He wants each and every one of us to be happy! I love you all!

Elder McKee

PS Jose is the older man in the white shirt

Jonah's Semana 64- He's Basically a ROCKSTAR

Monday, January 25, 2016

Hey! So this week was a blast!!! I guess you could say the week lasted all of 2 days!! On Tuesday my companion and I spoke in Zone conference in front of the mission presidency and the missionaries and it was quite good! I won’t lie I thought I was going to be more nervous speaking alongside my recently trained greenie of a companion in front of soo many missionaries but in the end I wasn’t nervous at all! In the beginning I was, just a little, but nonetheless I was nervous and I don’t know why.

My comp Elder Rogers is AWESOME and he was practicing his parts of the class pretty much for 72 hours straight trying to get it all on lock down.  Because he did all of that, the class we gave went so much better than I had ever anticipated! He speaks great Spanish and he did a great job of supporting me in what I taught and then adding onto it making the tradeoffs super constructive and I’m so thankful for that! Most of all I am stoked that we had practiced our class before we went and gave it. When we were assigned to speak we were told we had to give our whole class in 10 minutes and so that’s what we did. Actually, we only took 9 minutes and gave a whole minute of time for the other speakers to fill which was great because they all went waaayyyyy over time! It’s nice to know my companion was just as focused on taking the time we were assigned and not a second more! It’s about being responsible! :)) But yeah after that, I got sick.

I was dead after that!!!!! Haha. I’ve have been in the house for days!!!!! Also hey I just came up to Teguc today to get a blood exam taken and we will see what’s up. But all I can say to you for sure is that I have been rocking a temperature of about 103 for the past 5 days!! It’s been good! A whole lot of headaches and not a lot of sleeping!! Basically I could die. So hey all of you who haven’t written me lately, you don’t need to worry because I’ll probably be dead this time next week. But hey love you!!! Bye!!!!

Love,

Elder Jonah McKee

Jonah's Semana 63 - P-day Free-day and Other Adventures

Monday, January 25, 2016

Hey mom! What’s good? SO, hey,sorry for not writing you a big story last week I just didn’t really have anything to say... I mean there are some weeks here in the mission that are just soo bland and that is basically the best way to describe it, but yeah. This week however is a little more exciting!

So anyways to start it all off, this last Monday, as it always is in this zone, was a P-day free-day. Or in other words the zone didn’t want to do anything so the ZL’s just said we were all on our own to keep ourselves entertained... Just so you know I hate P-day free-days.... I love p-days when the entire zone is together and we all go to play soccer or something so I can get a little breather and relax for a minute but here in the  zone I’m in the P-days are almost 90% free-days. Well anyways, this last Monday a companionship that my comp and I like a lot came up to our area to hang out with us and we played Phase 10 and it was super fun! We went out to eat and then we all came to the cyber cafe to write home. Little did we know the bus that comes to our area schedule was changed and while we were writing, the very last bus left, abandoning them here for the night. We pushed the two beds together and slept four on the homemade king-size bed we made. (That night I barely slept at all) But yeah, so then the next morning they split at like 5 AM so they could get home on time to start studies at 8.

I guess just from the way I started the week off I knew it was gonna be a pretty interesting one and well, I was right!

The next day we had divisions with the ZLs and so we had to go to the south and work in their area and stay with them so they could teach us about their work habits. It was good that we stayed with them because on Wednesday we went to the temple and the bus was going to leave from Choluteca at 4:30 in the morning. It would have been impossible to get down there if we didn’t stay the night with them. We stayed there in the house of the ZLs after finishing divisions and that night 4 other elders slept over too, so in total we had about 8 elders sleeping in a tiny house and it was sooo hot and uncomfortably stuffy. I slept on a small chair that’s a lot like the ones we have in the front room and it wasn’t the best sleep in the world but I made due.

Four o’clock came around super-fast and everybody started getting dressed and doing their hair so we could get out to the church and take the bus. We all made it about 3 minutes before the bus got there and then we all boarded and we were off. In the voyage to the temple we picked up two other zones and they were the other missionaries that were going to accompany us in the sessions. I won’t lie, the 4 hour bus trip to the temple always goes by soo fast when you’re surrounded by funny and loving missionaries! Well yea, the temple was great and I was super stoked for the opportunity I had to go and recharge my spiritual batteries. After the session ended my comp and I went to eat at this one really good burger restaurant with the same two elders that had just slept over at our house on Monday (Elder Harris and Elder Silva). Really though, the food was great! I love going to Tegucigalpa and being able to eat good quality food! Haha. Don’t get me wrong I love the fried plantain and the beans but every 2 months or so its super nice to get a good burger :)) The temple trip ended shortly after we ate and all of the missionaries started to make their way back to the bus so we could make the 4 hour trip back home.

Since we’ve been home the week has just flown by! We missed two whole days of work in our area so we had to run like crazy men to visit all of the investigators we hadn’t seen and so we had a pretty busy schedule. Luckily we were able to complete all of the things we had to and for that I’m super stoked; however, we didn’t have anybody come to church! Even after running around reminding them to come all day Thursday, Friday and even Saturday. But I mean in the end we only have the ability to invite and invite and invite, we can never obligate! SO that all then brings us back to today!

Today Elder Harris and Silva came up to San Marcos again because once again today was a P-day free-day. So they came up to the mountains so we could take them hiking and so that’s what we did. We went hiking and it was awesome! We just went off trail hiking up a mountain in our area and we found some cool things like big trees to climb, lakes, lots of animals, and also a pretty cool viewpoint.

Truly I can say that this week was a good one and I love when they are. It just makes the mission so much more enjoyable when your days are all meaningful and memorable. Hopefully this next week will be just as exciting. I was called on to teach in this next region conference in front of about 80 missionaries so that’ll be fun!!! Haha, wish me luck!

Always,

Elder Jonah McKee

Jonah Semana 61 - New Year's Resolutions

Monday, January 4, 2016

Hey everybody, what’s good?

I hope you are all doing well and that up to this moment you’re enjoying the New Year!! I truly love the New Year for a ton of reasons but for some more than others. First, I love the New Year because I love when I’m writing the date and I write 2015.... Haha it just helps me realize how special I really am! Sometimes it takes me up until March to write the date and the year the right way and other times it only takes me a week or two but still it helps me see how sharp the mind is going into the year :)

Another reason is because I know it’s another year I am going to have to expand my horizons and grow. A lot of people would say that it’s a new start but I don’t like to think that way because if you don’t know where you came from then how will you know where you want to go? Honestly I am excited to be here in the mission and to pass this New Year because I’ve grown a lot and I now have a much better idea about where I came from and a much clearer view of where I want to go! This is the last holiday season I’ll pass here in the mission and that’s a sad but also liberating thought because I know that this time I’ve spent here has truly changed me- on a whole other level than what I ever thought possible! It’s also clear that I am still myself and I think I’ll always be the person I am but I have grown and my point of view is much more mature. I’m thankful for the opportunities that God gives me daily to become a person bigger than I ever hoped I’d be able to become.

Going into this year I have set many goals and all of them are aimed to help ensure that my future is a success! I hope to be able to end the mission the way I know I should and not just endure to the end but live each day with energy. I always want to live with the intention of helping others make bigger goals for themselves and achieving something in their lives that they maybe never have thought possible for them to accomplish. Really, I just want to live up to my own expectations and do all of the things I hope to because I know it’s in my hands and it’s my future and whatever God permits me to do, I would love to accomplish.

The mission has been a huge blessing for me and I will always keep searching for ways to learn and grow during the time I’m here!!  I love God and I love the idea of my personal progress taking me to a higher place so that I can have a better relationship with God. I hope each and every one of you has placed goals in your New Year and that you truly intend on completing them! I love you all and I miss you!

Love,

Elder Jonah McKee

Jonah Semana 60 - Tis the Season

Monday, December 24, 2015 

Hey mom I don’t really have much to say to you because I’m just gonna tell you all about it tomorrow, but I will tell you don’t worry about the package! Haha I love you both a ton and whether I get a package or not, this year has been awesome and I won’t forget it!

This week I have been just as busy as you, pulling together some serious events! We pulled off a pretty good and smooth Christmas banquet and all in all, the week was just jammed full of things to do! This last Friday we went to Teguc for a big Christmas party with the missionaries and it was sooo fun! Sister Bowler made some brownies and they were fantastic!! Haha she kept saying that they were burned but I honestly loved them!! The party though was awesome; I went thinking that it was going to be kinda weird because almost all of my mission buddies have gone home but still I had a ton of fun! All of the zones sang special numbers and we heard a talk from President Bowler and after all of that we ate and ate! Then, we ate some more!! Haha I love being a missionary so much because I can eat whatever I want and if I get fat then it doesn’t even matter! Haha it’s so much different then what I’d be doing if I was at home right now ;P

Truly though I have zero worries in the world right now and its amazing! Little by little I have been discovering new things that I never before knew about myself and it’s an incredible thing! Waking up one day and looking in the mirror and realizing that you’re

looking at a different person than the day before! Coming to know one’s self might be the greatest and most enriching experience ever and lately I have repeatedly come to find myself greeting a new me more and more frequently! My vision is clear and my goals have been falling into line with my perspective and outlook on the world and now I can see much better and understand what I am here on earth to do.

Christmas is an amazing thing and the holiday spirit is a real moving force that makes people be better than they were! I’m gonna be 20 years old on Monday and that scares the crap out of me but being here in the mission, filled with the Christmas spirit I know I’m gonna be able to start off this new decade of my life the right way!! God is good and

loving and I know its thanks to Him that I have finally come to know who I am and where I’m going! I love you to the stars and back and always no matter how old I get I will always be my 5,8,16, and 19-year-old self. I love you mom and I will always be your little boy no matter what!

Love,

Elder Jonah McKee