Week #7: San Diego

Hello Family!

                Merry Christmas to you all tomorrow! It is looking like I will be calling around 3 or 4 pm. We will be at the temple tonight visiting with people and then tomorrow we are at the Battalion in the morning. It was such a great week! We have an investigator named Janey who is 50, but we get to teach her because we are the only sisters in the stake. Well it took us about 7 visits before she finally agreed to let us teach her, she calls it "Bible Study with my girls" it is so great. We love her. We finally taught the restoration and she loved all of it, we invited her to be baptized and she said she would think about it. We planned to teach her the Plan of Salvation last Thursday and on Wednesday morning we got a call from her in tears and she informed us that her 8 year old grandson had been stabbed to death the night before and she wanted us to come over right away. It was in Ohio, you should see if it was on the news! Pretty extreme. When we got there we asked her why she called us first and she said, "Right when I heard the news, I looked at my Book of Mormon and started to read it and your number was right there and something just told me to call you." It was pretty powerful. We taught her the plan of salvation and extended another invitation to be baptized. She accepted and is going to be baptizedJanuary 18th. It is amazing how the right timing affected everything. She called us Saturday and said, "So.. Who is gonna take me to church?" She is ready and prepared. Amazing how sometimes it takes hard things in our life to realize the truth. We also have been able to contact referrals like crazy this week. We have met with some so far and are hoping to meet all of them by this weekend. Miracles are happening! We had Zone Conference last Friday and it was great! It is so crazy to be the missionary in the Zone Conference, but I love it! We also had a Christmas party with the whole mission on Saturday. Every single missionary was in the gym at the church and it was a blast! Dad- I would recommend doing that next time you are a mission president:). It was an overwhelming feeling of happiness to all be there united in the same cause. I have met a lot of people this week. I gave a tour to a family that has a daughter who just got back from BYU-Idaho. Her name is Ali Larson and she knows Dallin Mower really well. She also is cousins with Jason Chris and Meghan Lyons and their family haha! Crazy! She is super sweet. She will be in my branch as well so I will be seeing her often! I also gave a tour to a girl named Meghan Rowley who is friends with Hayden McKee! He served in her ward in California. At the temple last week I was visiting with a family and they saw my name tag and asked me if I was related to any McKee's in Pocatello, Idaho. I said, yes I sure am! They are the May family from Boise, Idaho and they said that their parents know Dad really well and that they go to the Petting Zoo all of the time. Later at the temple I saw Elder Shatzer!! It was so funny I did not even recognize him. We talked for a little bit and I met his Wife! Crazy! It was so great to see him and he looks really good. It has been so fun to make connections. Oh and I also ran into a family, the Draughton family from Temecula. They were in the McDermott's ward there and they said they know Breanne and their parents really well. You will have to tell them for me! We have been trying to find people to teach like crazy. People are not super friendly here in California, but we are trying new ways to strike up conversations every day. We will get them! We are going to be meeting with a sweet family I met at the battalion this week. They are great. They will be baptized soon, no worries. I also had a really neat experience last week. A lady and her son walked into the Battalion and asked me what is was. I explained to her about the tour and she said ,"Oh okay well we have to leave soon and we are catholic so we will just go." I said, "That is great that you are catholic! We love people who are catholic! Why don't you just stay for the first few minutes of the tour and then you can leave!?" She agreed and we started the tour. Well I was expecting her to get up and leave after the first room and she stayed, she ended up staying the whole tour!! In the last room of the tour we have an opportunity to share our testimony and the Spirit spoke really strong through me and I talked about how we need to endure hard times just like these men in the battalion etc... As we were gold panning, she came up to me and started bawling. She said, "Sister McKee, I know that I was led here for a reason. I was just passing by and I felt like I should check this out and I now know why. Your message in the last room was so powerful. The reason I am in San Diego right now is because I was getting away from my life. Today is the anniversary of my husbands death and I was just about to give up on everything and took my son and went straight to San Diego and I know that I was led here so I could here that message in the last room. I have never felt such a peace and comfort." It was a powerful moment. It is very humbling to know that God trusted me to say what she needed. I love this work with all of my heart. I am grateful to be a little part of it. I am trying so hard to give my all every day. It is not always easy, but I will never stop trying. I know this gospel is true and I love it. I know that there are so many people prepared to here the truth. I know that as we are in tune with the Spirit the Lord will continue to guide our words and actions. This week in Zone Conference the 1st counselor in the Mission Presidency President Morgan spoke to us and he read form John ch. 17 as Jesus was praying for Us. In ch. 17 It talks about how He was not only praying for us, but for our investigators and the people we will be leading every day. He knew we would need the extra help and strength. He prayed for each one of us. I love him so much. I love this gospel. I know it to be true.  I know that "for this cause [he] was born" for us, to teach us how to live a perfect life and then atone for our sins. I am so happy to be a missionary!! I will talk to you all tomorrow! I have 40 minutes and that will be a great 40 minutes:) I love you all! Oh and Thank you to everyone who has sent me things!! I have been getting so many things from the ward still. Sister West sent me a great letter that I love. Dad and Mom thank you for your package!! I am going to gain weight!! haha. I also received a fun Christmas package from Kris and Shane Bell family which was so thoughtful. I feel so supported.  I pray for you all every day and I love you all so much. Merry Christmas!!

Love, 

Sister McKee

Week #6: San Diego

Hello Family!

 

                Happy Birthday to the most amazing mom in the world this week!!!! I am sad I will not be there this year, but know that I am thinking about you and that I am so lucky to have you as my mom! You all better spoil mom like crazy!!  It is amazing to think how far you have come from last year. A year ago we were all at the hospital in Nashville with you every day. I am so grateful for that time I had with you and thankful for what you went through to teach me so much. You are amazing. This week has been another great week! We had so many miracles happen. We contacted a referral names James this week from our Zone Leaders, come to find out James is Kawa's best friend and they were both looking for truth and so we were able to teach them both on Wednesday with a member names Brent Sadleir. It was so awesome. The Spirit was so strong. They committed to coming to church and were really excited about it. The adversary is working hard on both of them though, they decided not to come and James claims he knows the Book of Mormon is not true. Kawa however hasn't said much. We are hoping we can reach out to him this week and help him remember the feelings he felt and knows to be true. Last week I had shift at the Mormon Battalion. There was a lady wandering around and I went and talked to her. She said that she was just waiting for her family to take the tour because she had already taken it. She asked to see the tower so I took her out there. She thanked me and went up to it. I had this overwhelming impression to stay and talk to her when she came back down. I started a conversation with her and asked her about her religion. She just started crying and said that she has messed up so much in her life and that she knew the catholic faith wasn't true, but that she did not know where truth was and that she had messed up her family because she does not know what is true. I talked to her and told her that her feelings were normal and that she needs to feel that way so that she won't just accept anything as the truth. I told her how I came to know that my church was true and then taught her the restoration. She loved it and when her kids were done with the tour she told them to leave so she could keep talking to me. Her daughters are amazing and we have loved getting to know them. We are meeting with them tonight and we are so excited!! Miracles are happening all around us. Another miracle is that she is in our stake and even though she is not in our YSA branch we get to teach her because we are the only English sisters in our zone. Heavenly Father just puts us in the right place at the right time to find those who are prepared. Another miracle happened Sunday night. Sister Salinas and I went to a fireside that Laura and her daughter Angleina were attending to, well we talked to her and then had a couple people come up and give us referrals for YSA so it was great, but we realized we had to leave right away to get home on time. We left and when I got into the car our tire pressure was at 6. I was freaking out and my companion who has never driven before did not know what that meant so she said, "Sister McKee it is going to be okay, we will make it, we only have 25 miles."  I was laughing because I knew she didn't know what it meant but I had the impression to just drive and have the faith that we would make it by our faith. ( I kept saying, "Sister Salinas, my dad would kill me if he knew that I was driving with my tire pressure this low.") However I asked her to pray and we went on our way. I could feel the tire swaying and swerving, but we kept going. We made it and the tire pressure was at 2 when we pulled into our apartment. It was truly a miracle. We called the Elder in charge of cars right after and he was in awe that we had made it home. I know that the Lord was helping us so that we could be obedient and be safe. We arrived at exactly 9:29 pm. I am so thankful for the faith of my companion. I was thinking about this experience a lot and how my companion had no idea what it meant to have our tire pressure so low, and she had so much faith that we would make it even though her companion was freaking out haha. It taught me a lot, it is so important that we first and foremost follow God and follow His promptings. He will allow us to be obedient and to achieve our righteous desires if we just turn to him. He just asks us to knock and he will show us the way. I am so thankful for the opportunity to learn and to grow every day here. There are so many tender mercies all around us. I get to call you next week yey! We call from the Battalion and I think that we get to choose what time. I get 40 minutes to talk to you all! I am excited! I will let you know next Tuesday what time I will call you! Just remember to keep smiling. We are working hard here and in exact obedience. I know that Lord is blessing us every day. I know this is the true church and the fullness of the gospel. We can always progress and help others to progress. Dad and Mom thank you for your package! I missed the Walkers because I was in my area, but they left me a note and the box! I am excited to open it today. Patti came to the Battalion last week too, but I was also in my area at that time. Oh and Elder Horner signed up to take us to lunch last week. I met his sister and brother in law. I am happy Angelee is home! I am going to miss being with you all this Christmas. Keep being the most amazing family. I am seriously so blessed. Thanks for EVERYTHING!! and Merry Christmas!! Happy Birthday mom!! I love you all:) :)

 

Love,

 

          Sister McKee:)

                                          Sister mckee and sister salinas

Week #5: San Diego

Hello Family!!

               It has been a great week of learning and growing here. There is so much going on and we are so busy and we love it so much! My trainer is amazing and so humble. I love her so much she just boldly states truths to people in her cute mexican accent and she knows why she is here and loves the work. She knows who she is and she loves everybody!! We work well together and we bring different ideas so help our investigators specifically! This week we went and visited a referral, his names is Kowa. Kowa became Christian last year but grew up Muslim. He made it clear to us that " I am not going to be baptized so you might as well not waste your time here, but I will listen to you if you need someone to pass the time." We kindly said, "Kowa that is great! Thank you so much, you are so nice to let us use our time in your home." We taught him the restoration and realized that he knew a lot already, but he had a ton of misconceptions about the church. We answered a lot of his questions and he agreed to read the book of mormon in order to learn more about other sects of christianity. He is so smart and knows the bible well, really well and he backs up everything with the bible. We love it! We came back to his apt. yesterday and met with him. He had read 14 chapters and we only asked him to read one. He said it surprised him how similar it was to the bible, but that it did not make sense to him. We explained a lot and our whole lesson was answering his questions. He wants to believe everything but his biggest struggle is the modern day prophet. He feels that we all can be prophets. We explained the whole structure of the church and he had the moment that clicked in his mind and he said " Wow, that makes sense, and I want that to be true. I feel like I could be compared to someone who rejected Christ and his authority in the bible because they didn't know the truth either and kept on believing what they wanted. If this is all true that means everything is true, this book of mormon, the prophet, Joseph Smith.. Everything! But if it is not true than everything is not true, Wow!" Haha it was so awesome to watch him teach himself and that he figured so much of it out on his own. He is still very skeptical, but we challenged him to listen to the words of the prophets on lds.org and he is so excited! We teach him again tomorrow and I am so excited. He is amazing and I cannot wait to continue telling him about the amazing truths we have on the earth. The Spirit was so strong in our lesson. We also met a boy last week names Cody who just randomly wandered into the institute. We had an appointment with him and he was so excited about the Book of Mormon! We texted him every day, but a few days after he let us know that he didn't care about it anymore and was leaving town. We know that Satan is working so hard on him, but we are not giving up so please pray for Cody and Kowa! We have many others that we have been teaching, and are just praying for more solid investigators. I love this work with all of my heart. I know it is true and I know it is what I need to be doing at this exact time and place. Elder Horner is in my YSA Branch! It was so weird to see him, but awesome that I get to serve in his branch. He is so funny and helps me remember to work hard as did all of the Nashville missionaries! I am so thankful for all of those missionaries that have all helped me. I also gave a tour last week to a man named Darren Scott and he is from Australia. He had his whole family there. He was taught by BJ Farnes in Australia!! Small world! He was visiting San Diego for a wedding with his family. I met them all and they are great. Another man can who knew the Henderson's in Pocatello, he was also from Australia. I am loving meeting people everyday from all over the world. I worked on the temple grounds last night and Sister Marysa Barfuss and Sister  Marnie Strasser were there!! It was so awesome to see them! It is fun to all be serving in the same mission. I hope you all know how much I love you. I know this work is what I need to be doing right now. I love being a full-time missionary. I know that the lessons I am learning every day will be essential to my whole life and to my future family. I know this gospel is true and I know that my Savior loves me so much. He did die for each one of us and we are choosing to accept him every day by each action. Thank you for your support and love. I love and pray for you. I have the best family:) Keep doing missionary work in Idaho and Wyoming and wherever else you go! Also tell Kenzie Mabey I love her and I am so happy for her!!! She is amazing!! Are all of you going to her baptism?! How exciting!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!! Love, 

Sister McKee:) 

Week #4: San Diego - Mormon Batallion

Hello my amazing Family!!!!

                         Last Tuesday I got to San Diego and it was so warm! I love it here. The weather is amazing, just as everyone says and President and Sister Clayton are just remarkable people who I look up to a lot. It was so strange being on the opposite end of everything! It was a great experience though. We got fed a great lunch when we got there at the mission home. Mom would love the mission home here, the rooms are so big haha. We looked out the back yard and saw Mexico and the ocean behind the beautiful city of San Diego. It is truly amazing. The rest of the night was full of trainings and interviews and It was great to go through it all again, but this time as a missionary! That night we got sent with some of the sisters and elders as temporary companions to stay with. My temporary companion ended up being my trainer!! Her name is Sister Salinas from Oaxaca, Mexico. She is 26 and was sent to the San Diego Mission speaking spanish. She is on her last 2 transfers with me and is speaking english and not only that but training in english and she is doing just amazing. I have learned so much for her and we have such a great time together. She is going to teach me spanish so we can teach almost everyone here! :) She is one of the most humble people I know and she talks to everyone! She has so much courage and loves God with all of her heart. We have had much success because we are obedient. Tuesday night, my MTC companion Sister Larson came into my room, bawling. She said her brother had just taken his life. She is so strong. She decided to stay and she has put all of her energy focusing on God's will for her. She is such an amazing example. Please keep her in your prayers. I love her and she has an amazing trainer so I know she is doing just great. Sister Salinas and I are in the Santee YSA Branch. I love it so much!! It is a branch with about 50 members, so we have big plans to make it a ward! The branch is so strong and have just welcomed me in. I met two people that know my friend Kyle Howell ( Gloria and Evan) and I met one person that knows Blythe Bailey ( Ashley). It is fun to make connections! Thanksgiving was spent with our Branch President - President Little's family! They are amazing. We have been able to teach a lot, it is so different because we have half days at the battalion and in our area. Our area is about 30 minutes away so we work so hard when we get the opportunity to be in our area. We have 3 investigators right now. Ashley, Jesus and Eric. Ashley is amazing and comes to church every week, she is just trying to see the importance of baptism. I have not been able to be in a lesson with her yet, but hopefully I can help her when I am. Jesus We met on Friday and He is starting to read the book of mormon and is excited to come closer to God and Eric was a street contact. He was sitting outside one day when we were visiting a less active and We said hello and he kept talking to us and wanted to learn more and he is going to come to the YSA activities! We are meeting with him this week. We also met another amazing boy named Cody who is from Oklahoma. He was just in the institute building and wanted to come by more often. He said he loved the atmosphere of the building and that is why he kept coming. He is so funny and open to knowing more so we have an appointment with him tomorrow. The work is progressing. I am so excited to find those searching for the truth. Now at the Mormon Battalion there is so much going on to! Miracles! There are so many visitors there every day. We had about 800 last friday for the whole day. It is so busy. We get to wear great pioneer dresses and the tours are so awesome and entertaining. Everyone loves it no matter what! Every tour is different too because of the Spirit. We were given our Scripts on Wednesday nightand I was able to give a double tour on Thursday with Sister Salinas and guess who to?!? The Loveland family!! Susan had appointments in Tijuana so they stopped by on their way back and it was my first day at the battalion so it was so awesome to see them and it was so suprising. Susan, Mark, Lindsay and Gentry all came!! It was so fun giving them a tour. I will forward the picture of us together there. I gave my first tour by myself on Sunday! It went really well. The Spirit definitly led it. It was great to finally have the script memorized so I could focus on listening to the Spirit and not on getting the right words down. There are about 5 couples that work at the Battalion with us. Elder and Sister Miller served with the Andre's in Washington DC! Oh I also had someone come into the Battalion and when they saw my last name said, "I know that name! Are you from Idaho? We are from Utah but always go to Idaho to visit McKee's Petting Zoo our favorite place!"  I told them I know that place very well;) Our director Elder and Sister Seegmiller are amazing. They always make us feel important and give us the best tips ever. Since the Battalion is a historic site, we have to be careful with referrals and baring our testimony etc... but He talked to me about different ways that we can make them feel the importance of the message without saying it. How to draw the Spirit in specifically to them. I love it and it truly is different for every tour that I give. Last night we were able to take a Less Active - Kaydia to the temple and introduce her to members of the branch. It was amazing!! Everyone calls it the white castle. It is jaw dropping and the Spirit is so strong there. We have been street contacting a lot. That is harder for me, but I am getting better every day! I am making goals to stop focusing on myself and getting to work. I know it will come over time and with the help of the Spirit. Thank you all for your letters and cards. Please tell the ward thank you so much for the package!! It made me cry it was so thoughtful. I LOVE everything in it. The Rice's made me envelopes with my name and address printed on them, a cute notepad with my name and a pillowcase signed by the YW! There were also cards from lots of people in the ward and cute cards signed by the primary. I still haven't been able to look through it all yet, but it meant a lot when I looked at it this morning. Thank you so much to them. I also got a thanksgiving card from the YW that I love!!! Also Dad Thank you so much for the Candy and notes last Monday!! That made my whole day and the candy was delicious!:) I am so blessed to have so much support in my life. I truly feel such a deep gratitude to all of you. Please know that I love you all so much. I know that I am where I am right now for a reason. There are so many different reasons and I am learning so much. I know that the Lord is preparing the hearts of so many to listen to the truth of this message and I feel honored to be a full time missionary helping this work come along. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and that he went through so much to bring this truth to the earth and I can follow his example and be willing to sacrifice anything to bring others to this truth. I know God lives and I know he loves each one of us. I know Jesus did die on the Cross for us. For our trials for our sins for our sorrows. He loves us and he wants us to follow him. I know that as we are obedient we will be blessed and he can work through us when we obey Him. I know that this is not going to be easy, I will be exhausted and tired but I do know that I can and will do hard things because the Lord is with me. There is no way I can do this without Him. I hope you all realize how amazing this work truly is. Will you think of someone who needs their testimony strengthened this week and help their testimony grow by serving, teaching or doing something specific for them? I know that as you do this the Lord will not only help their testimony grow, but yours as well. I love you all. I Really have the best family. I am so lucky I get to be with you all forever:) Keep being amazing and know I am praying for you!! I LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH:)

Love, 

Sister McKee:)

Week #3: The MTC

Hello My amazing Family!!!!

    I cannot believe that I already get to write again. I cannot even begin to catch up with all of you! You are all just so busy doing so many great things for people. I have the best family in the whole world! Life just flies here at the MTC!! It is crazy how much happens in such a short amount of time. This week has been amazing. We ended our TRC investigators last week. Lawanna ended up being sick so we were unable to continue teaching her, however we ran into her at the cafeteria last Saturday and she completely broke character and said , " Ya'll were the best missionaries, seriously. Ya'll are gonna miss me so much and think about me." It was so sweet and we just laughed and talked about everything. It was so great to see her and her story is all true. She moved here for cancer treatments and got visited by the missionaries and eventually got baptized. She does not have any family and got put in foster care her whole life so she is so thankful for the truth and family ward that she has. She is amazing and an amazing example to all of us that we are so blessed with different trials for different reasons. She said that she would go through everything all over again if that meant the only way for her to find the truth. She is such a humble lady and we have a deep love for her. We got a picture with her that I will send next week. As for Sarah, our schedule got all mixed up so I have not been able to talk to her at lunch anymore, but I did see her this week and told her that I had finished Genesis and she said, "What?? You are really reading the bible?? Bless your heart." I could tell she was so touched that I listened to her concerns. Next time I see her I am going to make sure that I take a picture and get her email so I can stay connected. I can see a light growing within her since the first time that I saw her. She loves being here around the "nice young men and young ladies." I am excited to watch the miracle happen in her life. 

Our Elders left for New Zealand on Monday. We miss them a lot but know that they are doing so much good for the people there. We ended our regular MTC training on Tuesday. We said our last goodbyes to Brother Boddy and Sister Knowlten our amazing teachers. It was so sad. We just love them so much. Sister DeBoer came and visited me this week! It was so great to see her! I also saw Hyrum Bawlzer who works here now too! I want to see Sister Bishop ( aka Natalie Davis) before I go so if anyone talks to her let her know I am in 4m on the 4th floor until I leave Tuesday! I have no idea how else to get a hold of her! Wednesday was an insane day! So much goodness going on. We started out the day going to Temple Square and getting a tour and then we had class all day. Sister Larson and I are Sister Training leaders now so that has been a humbling and fun experience. We get to help the new missionaries every Wednesday night with the Zone Leaders Elder Perez, Elder Gamble and Elder Pickett (Super humble elders and great to work with). We also have a lot of councils on Sunday with the Branch Presidency and on Saturdays we do interviews with all of the sisters in our zone. We have 16 sisters in our zone and 24 elders. We love it! they are all great! This Wednesday we got 4 new sisters who are going to Australia and England and we got 12 new elders.  One of them is from South Africa and has some great stories and a picture of her walking a cheetah! They have already taught us a lot about just being happy and loving life while serving a mission. We gave a tour to them after. For Visitor Center Training we answer chats on mormon.org for about 2-3 hours each day and holy moly that has been such a testimony builder. So many people are inspired to just click that sight, and we are ALWAYS busy answering questions. We work with our companion and we are all linked within the chat. We also get to answer phone calls for the mormon.org number. It is a great opportunity because there are so many people just looking for certain answers that will help strengthen their testimony!! It has been so humbling and we love it! There are so many amazing people in this training with us from all over the world. Most of them will be going to Temple Square from their missions. 

Saturday we get a new companion from Temple Square and we get to give tours all night there. That will be a great experience. I have seen a lot more people that I know Mckenzie Zenger, Sam Noorda, Daniel Sprier, Sister Knox ( from Murfreesboro, Chantry's sister!) etc... They all look great! I go to San Diego Tuesday morning! I am so excited, it will be such an amazing opportunity to be on this side of Transfers! I have always just watched them and now I get to be that missionary. When I talk about it to my companion I start to cry because I know how powerful that experience is. Wow I cannot wait to go serve!! I am so blessed to have such a great support at home. I have the best 9 siblings in the whole world and I love you all so much and I am so thankful for your examples to me and that we will get to live together forever because we all know that it is real and there for us. I love you all so much. I wish I could write more, but just know that I love you all so much. I know that the Plan of Salvation is real and that  this earth life is so small, yet SO essential! Everything we do here will affect where we go and what we learn and where our future families will be. I know this will all of my heart. I am loving learning and becoming closer to my Savior each day. My teacher last night had us close our eyes and imagine that we walked into our visitor center and instead of the sister missionaries it was Christ giving us the tour leading us. That is who we are going to be for these people coming to the Battalion. We may be the only light of Christ they have ever seen and we get to be that instrument to help them get back to him. I am so excited to find those people! I cannot explain how happy I am to go to the Battalion Site. The church is true! Will you all focus your prayers this week on what you are thankful for and let your Heavenly Father know how grateful you are? I love you all. Keep Smiling Big! Talk to you in San Diego! Wahoo:)

Love, 

 Sister McKee

Week #2: The MTC

Hello Family!!!

          You all sound so busy as always, but just carrying on the great work. Time is so crazy here and I cannot believe that I go to San Diego a week from Tuesday!! Life here is great, I think that I am enjoying it a little too much, but seriously we learn how to be the best missionary every hour of our day so no complaining here! It is incredible. That is exciting about Grandpa, he is such a great man and tell him congrats from me! Mom - that is so awesome about your surgery! I will be thinking about you that day a lot and praying that it goes well. I am so blessed to have all of you as my family and I think about that every night when I look at the pictures I have of you all. 

         My companion is so awesome! She reminds me so much of Lindsay Hawkins and is just so funny, but super obedient and loves the work. We have been able to accomplish a lot together and get along really well. We laugh all of the time, but have so many spiritual moments together where we cry too haha! We are always on time. I will send a picture of us, hopefully soon! Last Saturday we started teaching a man named Joe and he is just golden. We talked to him about our church and he loves it. We committed him to be baptized the first lesson. Our teacher Brother Boddy  said, "Sisters, that is the most spiritual I have ever felt in a role play here at the MTC, and especially the first one you have done here! And no one has ever committed me to baptism on the first lesson, good work." We were so happy, but the Spirit just led me to commit him. We have had 2 lessons with him since and he is over prepared and ready to be baptized. Now we had another investigator names Lawanna, a black lady from Arkansas, and that did not go so well haha. She kept asking us to leave and did not want us there. She has cancer and is gone a lot too. We stayed persistent and left 3 Nephi Chapter 11 with her to read as she was telling us to leave. She said " Umm no I am okay" then finally she said "Okay fine I will take ya'lls book but there is no way I am reading that, don't come back." Well we did haha and she wasn't home. So we left her a note and candy. Then last night we went back and she just rolled her eyes, but we could tell her countenance was different. She let us come back in and we just talked and made a great connection and she trusted us. She allowed us to talk about the scripture that she read!!! She read the whole chapter and had questions about it and the Spirit was so strong. We taught her how to pray and she prayed and Sister Larson and I just started bawling because the Spirit was so strong! She asked us to come back and teach her, so we are going to teach her about the restoration tonight and hopefully commit her to baptize! Wahoo! It was amazing how the Spirit worked with us and her because we were persistent and didn't leave. Now, that is awesome because Lawanna is really a member playing herself when she got converted, so it is real. But even at the MTC you can have real missionary experiences. Some of the investigators are actually non-members and just need a job, but we aren't allowed to know who is and who isn't. So last night at dinner there was a lady sitting at a table by us in the cafeteria who was playing an investigator. I had this prompting to go and talk to her so I did and I just went and stood next to her and said " Hey where are you from??" and she says. "Tennessee, but I am from the Church of Christ so don't start talking to me about your church, I only have to listen to that during my work hours." I said " Tennessee!! I just moved from Tennessee!" Anyway we started having a great conversation and she went to Libscomb and freaked out when I told her I lived in Brentwood she and just moved here to Utah with her Boyfriend. She said that someone said the MTC was looking for people who hated the church to be investigators for us and she needed a job so she said why not! She just kept going on and on about how she is never going to join this church, but she Loves this job because everyone is so nice and nobody swears haha. We became friends fast and I am going to sit with her again tonight at dinner and get a picture with her and her email. She notices a difference as she is working at the MTC I can tell, but she would never admit it. She said, "Sister McKee, I think that I would actually consider letting your missionaries teaching me more when they come, but they say the believe the Book of Mormon AND the Bible. They do not believe the Bible or know anything about it, and it is a shame to say you do when most of you have only read or cared about the Book of Mormon. If you believe both are testaments from God then you should know both." I thanked her for her comments and said "Sarah, you have inspired me! I am going to start reading the Bible, but will you help me? I am leaving for San Diego in a little over a week so could I email you and ask you questions to help me teach?" She said she would and I am hoping that as I am emailing her in San Diego that she will want to learn from me as well as I teach her too. I am almost done with Genesis and excited to read it all again but differently this time so I can learn the most I can. It is amazing that because I lived in Tennessee she wanted to listen to me. I feel so blessed that the Lord trusted me to talk to her. I will keep you updated! I will see her around six.

         I have seen Justin Dance, Meghan Ray, Bridger West, Casey Orr and a lot more from Pocatello and Rexburg. Daniel Sprier just got here Wednesday too! I think we fly out the same day because I have an extra week. I have a great district! Our elders leave Monday for New Zealand. They are all just great elders. We start Visitor Center Training on Wednesday and we get to go to temple square and work with the sisters there for a couple days! Fun! I cannot believe we only have just over a week left. My teacher Sister Knowlton (Who is AMAZING!) is friends with Hermana Gold and Hermana Zullo and she said that she has been following our blog for the whole last year and freaked out when it all registered haha! I was so funny! I got asked to play the piano for an audition and we went in and auditioned yesterday and Sister Nalley ( Our MTC PResidents wife) was auditioning us and she said "McKee?!? Like Jared McKee's little sister??!?" I said yes! and she just went on and on  "Elder McKee was out favorite missionary, how is your mom?? We have to get a picture!" Just everything! It was so cute and funny. She wants me to meet President Nalley so she told me to get my companion and come find them and get a picture before we leave. She also asked if we were related to Rachel. I guess the are cousins! Crazy connections! So thanks to Jared for letting me be friends with our MTC President haha! Tuesday night Elder Perry came and spoke to us! It was mainly about companionships, it was really great and taught us a lot of things that we will probably need with our future companions. We got to go to the temple this morning! It is weird when we get to cross the street of the MTC haha. Part of our training this week  was taught by Brother Christensen who was Elder Christensen on the district who served in California. It was pretty cool to be with him. 

          I am writing super fast so I hope this all makes sense, but just know that I love you all and the church is true! It is amazing how the Spirit can work with us in every sense. If there is someone that comes to mind to invite to church, just do it. Don't worry about offending them or losing a friend. Just find a connection that you can make with them and the church whether it is families, church history or anything. There is so much we can do. Thank you all for your letters! I wish I could write you all long letters. Thank you Angie for your dear elder letter. The dear elder letters come the day of, so it is fun to get them and made my day! Just know I am doing great and I just cannot wait to get out to the field to find! Dad, I want to hear more about that letter from my mission! Sounds exciting. I miss you all a lot ,but I know I am at the right place and at the right time. Let me know what I can do for you all, probably not much here, but I can always try haha. I love you. 

Love, 

Sister McKee

Week 1: The MTC

Hello Family!!!

              It is a great day!! I am so happy to be here and I am loving it already so much. I say already, but it feels like we have been here for weeks! Which is good. I wrote you a handwritten letter the other day, but I will say some of the same things just in case you do not get that. I am in a district of 10 missionaries. 5 of us our going to the Mormon Battalion, 1 to the Washington DC temple visitors center and 4 elders going to the Hamilton, New Zealand Mission. They are all great missionaries and we laugh a lot, probably too much but we love each other and the work. My amazing companion is Sister Alison Larson and she is from Lehi, Utah. She is so funny and sweet and we get a long really well. We are all obedient and love Heavenly Father.  It is a lot different here at the MTC than being in Nashville, except that the purpose is the same. I will be leaving for the Mormon Battalion November 26th. The first two weeks we will be strictly learning the gospel doctrines and teaching investigators and the last week here we will be doing visitor center training and we get to go to the Salt Lake Temple Visitor Center and give tours with them for part of that. The very first day we got put in a room with about 20-30 other missionaries and we were in charge of teaching 3 real investigators as a whole. It was crazy to me because I was so timid. I feel like I have learned so much in Nashville and I feel like I know how to teach, but it is important for me to take a couple steps back and learn what the missionaries learned too before they came to Nashville. I feel like I jumped a few steps and need to learn the fundamentals. I love learning them though and it has been a humbling experience.  I am not going to be a timid missionary, I promise Dad.:) It is interesting though how nervous I have been, but I have been praying for more confidence and today I was a lot more confident. Right now, Sister Larson and I are teaching a guy named Joe who just left the RLDS church. He has 2 daughters and a wife. We will teach him on Saturday. He is real, but we will be teaching him through our teacher Brother Boddy. However, on Monday we start teaching a girl names Lawanna who will actually be here and we will have lessons with her all next week. We role played a lot today and really felt the Spirit tell us what to teach to Joe. It is amazing how the spirit works through us as we have faith. You will have to tell the Wests that I just ran into Bridger at lunch today. He looks great and happy! We are hoping to get a picture before he takes off to Ukraine next week. Today was the first day we were scheduled to exercise (which is weird! Only set times at the MTC) We jogged around campus and then we get our first P-day today too! We only get a half P-day and after studying constantly, it feels so weird to have a little break! It is definitely needed though so I understand why we have it. We didn't realize how tired we were until today. I have already learned so much about myself and different techniques that I should be using on my mission. I have learned that I think to much when the gospel is just simple. I wanted to teach Joe all about priesthood authority, when I need to be focusing my efforts on the Doctrines of Christ, Faith, Repentance, Baptism, The Holy ghost and Enduring to the End. When we focus on these doctrines while teaching, the Spirit will help guide us when other hard questions come into the lesson, if we are prepared for them. The church is true and I am so happy that I am here. I know that I am supposed to be a missionary at this time and I am learning so much. I know the Joseph Smith did restore this church so that we can make it to have eternal life. By being baptized, we have entered into the gate that will lead us straight to the Celestial Kingdom. Wow, crazy to think about! And now we must continue to have faith, repent, take the sacrament to remember these covenants, be worthy for the companionship of the Holy Ghost and continue enduring to the end. We are all in this as a team and we can help one another every day. Our purpose is the "Invite others.." Others means everyone. Even and especially our companions and the people we are around every single day. You are all missionaries too and that is our purpose so let's go remind everyone about where they came from and what steps they can take to have eternal happiness. I love this work and I cannot wait to go to California and teach the great people of San Diego. I am so blessed. The church is true! Remember to smile and just know that I love you all. Have a great day!

Love, 

           Sister McKee

PS: ( I hardly have anyone's email so sorry!  Love you all! )

Sister McKee Enters the MTC