Jonah's Semana 94 - Life is Super Good!!!

Monday, August 22, 2016

What's up!¡?!?! Life is super good! 

This week on Wednesday we did divisions with one of the areas in my district "The Honduras" and guess what!! The Elders that serve there are both kids I know super well, Elder Hirschi and Elder Rogers! I went with Rogers because I trained him and was assigned with him for 3 whole months!! It was super awesome to be able to work with him after all of this time and see how much he has grown! Legit. I love that kid! I'm not even saying I love him just because I trained him but seriously you better believe that when he finishes the mission that we are gonna kick it.  

For real though, this week was super chill. The divisions were awesome and it was fun to spend the whole day with Rogers! After the divisions the rest of the week flew by because we as a region were invited to a symphony presentation about the restoration of the church and it was really well prepared!! We brought some investigators and they loved it! One of the people that sang was my good friend Jake from one of my past wards and it was awesome to see all of the people from three of my past areas!! It was the biggest reunion in my mission life! 

The concert was very good and the message was beautiful! Now that I'm getting to the end of my mission I had a ton of people come up to me and said goodbye. It was super sad to think I won't come back to see them for a very long time and maybe never again. It was rough but it was okay. 

This week Daniela, Alejandra and Victor went to visit their grandparents so they couldn't come with us to church but they are always progressing and making strides to be closer and closer to God.

I am nervous about these changes that are in 3 weeks because I don't want to leave this area. I want to stay here and finish the work I've started. But who knows!! I will go, I will do the things the Lord commands me to.

I love you all,
Elder Jonah McKee

Jonah's Semana 93 - 2 Legit 2 Quit

Monday, August 15, 2016

Hey Mom!!!! 
So this week has been pretty different than most of the other trillion weeks I've had here in Honduras and well, I mean what should I have expected after all that has happened?! Hmm, Where do I even begin?!?! 

So I guess I'll start off by telling you all about Wednesday; so, the day generally was pretty slow and boring but that all turned around when I got hit by a car!! Haha I wasn't really paying a whole bunch of attention and since I work in a pretty busy part of town a taxi was driving maybe like 10 mph and hit me on the left side of my body! It was basically like if somebody hit a super good double leg takedown and just swept my feet right out from under me. I fell on the taxi hood and got off his roof and apologized to the taxi man and went on with my day! That night we had a super awesome family home evening with 3 of our best investigators: Daniela, Victor, and Alejandra. Also Daniela´s family was there and we taught them how to make scripture stickers and read a chapter of the BOM! It's super funny being with all of them because they're seriously insane and have zero filters! It's kinda like eating dinner at home, a whole bunch of people talking and nobody is shy about anything at all! The family home evening brought that day to an end.

Thursday in the morning we had a member family invite us over to eat and so we were on our way over there when we ran into a reporter for the most popular news channel of Honduras "H.C.H" and I decided I wanted to talk to her to see if I could take a picture with the microphone just because it's something so predominate here in Honduras the three letters "H.C.H." In turn she handed over the mic without a fight or a complaint and let me take some pictures! As my comp snapped some photos she joined in and took some pictures too. She started asking me some questions and then out of nowhere the simple act of asking to take a picture turned into her interviewing me and me showing up on H.C.H!! It was pretty cool to start the day off with a big screen presentation! Since then almost everywhere we go people always seem to tell us they saw us on H.C.H!! Its pretty amazing the way the tables have turned from us going up to people and telling them we want to introduce ourselves to share the gospel, to them coming up to us introducing themselves and then we try to share a gospel message with them. Its pretty nice when the mission work basically covers itself! :)

The rest of the week went a little something like this, us walking and somebody screaming they saw us on H.C.H and us teaching them or them telling us we don't drink coffee and we are weird for not doing so. Almost every member in the ward on Sunday had something to say about our unexpected appearance on tv and on the internet. I guess you can say that even though we don't have tablets we are still trying daily to get the word out in any way possible!! All in all the week was 2 legit 2 quit!

But as you all know, there had to be some opposition somewhere and the opposition came on Sunday after church. One of our investigators and 7 others were shot and killed. He, our investigator, was introduced to us by another family and his death left many of our friends here in the Kennedy devastated. All good things eventually come to an end unless its Eternal Marriage because that lasts forever but besides that, all good things have to end at some point. At any rate, the week flew by and this next week is going to be interesting to see how the cards all fall. Hopefully the death of David  is something we will be able to help many understand and come to terms with and that in the end all Goodness and all Godliness will prevail. I love you and I miss you! Be safe and know I'm happy!

Con mucho amor,
Elder Jonah McKee

H.C.H News reporter in the making :)

 All the meds I get to take before I come home

Jonah's Semana 92 - Investigators Bringing Investigators is AWESOME!!!

Monday, August 8, 2016

Hi mom!! 

This week has been more anticlimactic than yours I promise. I feel like the week was super fast and wish that we could have used the time better. I am going to be staying with my companion Elder Otero another 6 weeks and I think I'll survive but it's gonna be rough. The first thing he said to me when he found out we didn't have changes is, "I know what you like and what you don't like and I'm going to make this the worst change you have ever had". It's rough but it's fine. I can tell he is truly trying to make good on what he said; this week has not been the most delightful for me. Almost every day is the same with him; him doing the opposite of what we should be doing and when I ask him what he wants to do he says it's my responsibility to make the decisions and then when I make a decision he fights me on it.... It's fun. 

On another note though, this week we had a super awesome and productive lesson with one of the families we are teaching.  They are all young people but they're super awesome!! Daniela is 20 years old and almost every time we have taught there she has brought us a new friend to teach; this week the friend she brought us is named Lessie and the lesson we had with Daniela, Lessie, Alejandra, and Victor was super awesome. We committed them to a baptism date for the 27 of August and we hope we can fulfill it!! We started teaching them 3 weeks ago and since the day we taught them they haven't missed out on any activities or Sunday meetings. I love them!!! Not to mention its super nice when your investigators bring you new investigators! I think if all of the people in the world would invite one friend to hear the message we bring after hearing it for themselves, the church would triple in size in just a year's time. Most of the days of the week we stop by their house to do a short 3 minute lesson and to see if they are reading The Book of Mormon. Almost every single time we go we have to give them a new assignment because they have already finished their last one. Its sad, I think they might read the Book Of Mormon faster than I do!! I mean I read it every day but they read it and answer the questions I leave them in the same amount of time I take just to read it. It's a pretty good sign if you ask me that you can see true interest.

Me on the other hand am doing fine. I could be happier but I'm doing the best I can with my situation. This Wednesday I'm going to start one of the last medical treatments necessary to be back to full health when I get home. I heard from the nurse that due to all of the antibiotics I'm  going to be pretty tired for the next couple of weeks! It's gonna be interesting to see how the two things, my companion caused stress and the medicine caused tiredness, get along. All in all it's only 10 days of treatment so I'll be back to normal before I know it! 

Thank you and dad for your examples to me and my brothers and sister. Congrats on your anniversary and thanks for being the best!

I love you mom. I hope you know that.
Elder Jonah McKee

Jonah's Semana 91 - Grand Master Plan

Monday, August 1, 2016

Man I seriously love our family!!!! Literally they are just the best bunch of good looking people you can possibly run into! I was so incredibly surprised to see Keagan and how big he is! When I left he was a short chubby kid and now he has pecks and everything! Wow. I was amazed to see everyone. Alec and Conner still look like jocks trying to one up each other in EVERYTHING but they look like they have fun doing it. Man it's gonna be so crazy getting home and truly seeing how you all have changed. 

This week I got a call from some missionaries who had found my memory card and on Friday they're going to bring it to me. (I think that was a blessing from God) So don't worry all of the 18 months of pictures will be returned to me shortly!

In other news this week is the week of changes but you will be surprised to hear that neither one of us will be moving and so I will be spending another 6 full weeks with my companion. Sometimes I think it may be because God doesn't think I learned what He intends me to learn so He's gonna let me suffer a little more.  It's good though because I am learning more about myself and I can see that I share some of the same flaws that he has and it inspires me to be better. 

Like last week, this week we also had a good amount of investigators in church and it's nice because when you see new people in church you know your work wasn't a waste of time. 
This week the best thing we did was a ward missionary activity on Saturday and it was nice to see the members a little involved in the mission work! Hopefully now they will understand a little more their role in missionary work and how important it is that they help us because even though we can do all of the work alone it's more successful when the members contribute. 

Little by little my grand master plan is coming together. I'm looking forward to the next 6 weeks here in the area and I hope in the end my goals will become reality. I have set a goal of 4 baptisms in this transfer and I hope that with the Lord's help we will be able to achieve it. I love you all and I miss you. 

Love, 
Elder Jonah McKee

Jonah's Semana 90 - Ups & Downs

Monday, July 25, 2016

Hey guess what!! I'm super stressed right now!! I brought my old memory card with the intention of storing all of my pictures on dropbox today because my memory is full and guess what!! I lost the memory! All of my mission photos from the first 18 months gone!!! I'm stressed!!! Once I finish writing you I'm gonna go retrace my steps and look for it. I think I know where it's at but it's gonna be hard to find! That if it's still there. 

But hey! This week was a super busy week for us as missionaries! On Tuesday we had conference and it lasted basically the entire day! We didn't leave there until like 4:30! It was way too long.... not to mention I feel like every conference they talk about the same thing!! In the beginning of my mission I loved conference because I felt pumped up and animated when it was done but now I just sit there and think to myself, ¨Why do these things take so long?¨; but in the end I realize the reason they take so long is because the zone leaders that talk try to make a huge elaborate lesson that really isn't necessary at all just so they can explain the importance of talking to people in the street and contacting. I thought that Elder Uchtdorf said it best when he spoke in general conference about the importance of simplifying our discipleship and teachings.  

After that, on Wednesday we had a pretty average day of work and the following day we had divisions! We left our area and worked with some other Elders in another area called La Honduras. It's a nice community built on the side of a mountain and round about are a bunch of students in apartments. The divisions were nice and a change of pace that was well needed.  Friday started off with another district meeting as always and well our leader didn't really have anything planned so he decided that he wanted to do a testimony meeting. It was cool I guess but I don't think anybody was ready for that. Everybody should always be ready to bear testimony in all places at all times but truly it's nice to know ahead of time that testimonies will be shared. It's like if on the third Sunday of the month out of nowhere the bishop stands up and says, ¨hey I didn't assign anybody to talk, so today is testimony meeting¨; its awkward.

However, the week came to a very solid end with us having 8 investigators in church and it was awesome!! Not only was the morning super successful but that afternoon we organized divisions and we were able to recover a ton of lost time! So all in all it was a good week; ups and downs but in the end more ups than downs!!!  I love you all and I know you love me. 

Elder Jonah McKee