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