Week #40: 9 months down-9 to go!!

Hello Family!

           Thank you again so much for the birthday wishes! I love them all! As you can see from my pictures I was not at all deprived on my birthday. Everyone spoiled me and I felt so guilty all day. Everyone here is amazing. I am so thankful. I am also so thankful to you all. I was unable to get the package however I think it will be here today. That is just so nice of you. Thank you so much. The work is amazing! Sounds like everything was great with the blessings and weddings and business as always! 

           Well my mission life has changed this week pretty drastically. I have been asked to serve as the new sister training leader here. It is crazy and a lot of fun. It is time consuming, but I am loving it! I am learning more to completely rely more and more on the atonement and on the fact that We are not alone in our companionship. Something else pretty weird is that I have also been asked to train a new sister from China - Sister Xia! She is called here on a Mandarin speaking assignment and she is amazing. She is seriously the Chinese version of Sierra haha. It cracks me up! These new assignments are going to be a big test for me with meetings and trainings every week while training Sister Xia. However I am so thankful for mom's email when she reminded me that we do hard things. and this is what reminds us that we are not alone in our assignments. Just please -- pray for me. I have been so humbled this week and feel extremely inadequate. I appreciate all of your love and help! I do not have a picture of my new companion.. Just imagine Sierra with a chinese face haha! Done. That is all. She is adorable though! Oh wait. On the pictures that I sent of all of the Mormon Battalion sisters, she is standing right next to me. She is a cute girl. She lived in Hawaii since she was 15 and she joined the church only 4 years ago. I have already learned so much from her and she is so patient with me. I feel so thankful. That would explain the pictures at what we call the Lighthouse. The directors took us to eat and discuss with the new and old sister training leaders. It was way more fun then we should be having on our mission. It was so kind of them though! I hope you got those pictures, the view was amazing. 

           

           Well even though we have not had time in our area this week, we are still seeing miracles every day. Adrian is getting baptized this Saturday! Wahoo! Finally!!!! It is almost for reals to.. We have to have his interview tomorrow and then it should be all good! This is interview #2. We have a former investigator that comes to church every week and we are going to be meeting with him soon! We are so excited because he contacted us this week. We will keep you updated. We have 4 with a date right now and they are pretty solid dates so that is exciting! Sister Xia has got the whole tour down at the Mormon Battalion and she is just such a blessing here. I love that girl. Our ward is doing awesome. People are really pitching in and fulfilling callings so well. I am so thankful. We have made a plan of action this week that the ward will focus on reactivation while the missionaries focus on teaching all of our investigators, especially with our lack of time. It has worked out so well already. Miracles are happening for sure. Most of our ward are recent converts which is great! 

           

            6 sisters went full proselyting this week including Sister Baker and Larson. So it is weird not having them around. As you saw, Elder Huffaker came by this week Also Gary Longmore and the Merrils who know dad. It has been a great busy week! When does school start for you all? I cannot believe it is the middle of August... Whoa... So crazy!!!

            This week will be exciting. We have what we call MTE's! Missionary Training Exchange. It will be an awesome time. We get to go and serve with the sisters for a whole full day of proselyting after meeting with the President. He will give us a training on what to focus on that day and We get to help each companionship work on those specific things for the day. It is awesome. Miracles always happen. That will be going on for about a month. Which is awesome! We had MLC last week and It made me miss ZLC's at the mission home in Nashville. MLC is at the church here haha so a lot different. We learned so much though. New rules being implemented and new goals. We have a goal to baptize in our zones every week! It will happen. The other day at the Mormon Battalion a lady walked in named Angie ( haha) She was so so nice. She told me that she had 10 minutes so I took her to the back and we talked about her life. She said she lives by a bunch of mormons and started to read the Book of Mormon. She said she loves it but has tons of questions. She loved being in the tour and committed to read the Book of Mormon every day and to pray about it. We were also able to give out a ton of Book of Mormons!

           Temple was awesome we got like 5-7 referrals and Sister Xia taught so much! there was a couple that was making fun of things and by the end they were crying and accepted missionaries. Super great! Well I love you all thanks for all you do. I will keep you updated. Seriously pray for me. I appreciate it! I will pray for you all too. The Atonement is so real!!! Use it!!!!! It is for everyone. 

I LOVE YOU

Sister McKee:)

We took a 9 month picture!

Week #39: Thank you!!

HEY!!

             First of all.. We just got Transfer calls! Hard to believe it is already another transfer! Well Sister Baker is leaving Helix AND the Mormon Battalion. She will be full proselyting. Crazy! I will miss her!! She will do great things with full time in her area though. I am going to be staying here in Helix YSA and training a new sister. I will meet her in the morning! I am excited. I think training is so fun. We are getting two new sisters tomorrow so I will let you know who it is next week. I will keep you updated. 

 

Thanks all for the great birthday wishes. I seriously had such an amazing birthday. I got way too spoiled here. I took a million pictures on Sister Baker's camera, but it is not working so I will have to send those next week sorry!! Sister Baker worked so hard to make sure that I had a good birthday. She is such an angel. I love her so much. She made me cupcakes and a bunch of the sisters surprised me in my apartment after running! It was just a great day.I got taken out to lunch by Elder and Sister Robinson a senior couple here. They took me to a super nice place too. I also got surprised with so many gifts and goodies from all of the sisters at the Mormon Battalion. People in my ward have done so much too. Also Elder and Sister Barnes the director gave me a couple meals at a restaurant in old town. I feel so blessed with cards and the Rasmussens made me amazing cupcakes as well. I am so blessed!!! I got WAY more than I should have that is for sure. I had a blast though. I have had such a great week! It was even better because we saw so many miracles at the Mormon Battalion and in our area. I took a japanese tour and they accepted a Book of Mormon and were interested. Also at night we met two amazing families. One family who grew up in Utah but are baptist! They said they know mormons and a lot of them and they like them. We talked for a long time and they started crying when we left they were so grateful. We also met a lady who is taking care of her parapaledgic ( I tried spelling that like 5 times.. ) niece and she just cried and cried to us. She was so thankful to us and she said, " I will always allow mormons to come in you are all so nice!" Small and simple things. Then to end my day off just right... I love to wave to people here and no one likes it haha! People are not like people in tennessee here. Well I was driving and a guy out of the middle of no where just waved to us! Seems like such a little deal but I was so excited! We also had a zone goodbye prayer last night as out zone leader  left today! so sad! 

            Sunday was such a miracle day! We had fast and testimony meeting and about 6-7 people came that we had invited .. most their first time or first time in a long time if they were less active. Well almost all of them bore their testimony and I cannot even tell you how strong the spirit was in that chapel. We were all in tears. It was incredible and the Spirit carried with us to all 3 meetings and everyone was so happy. We saw so many miracles that day and people who really truly had used the atonement in their lives and are ready to come back. I have been quoted over again by people after my testimony who said. "Just like sister McKee's parents say.. The gospel is a gospel of second chances." That has really rang true with so many people who have messed up but are ready to come back. That is what the true church is about. Using that atonement and improving ourselves every single day. I have felt so thankful to be a missionary and to teach people about this. Almost every single person got up and talked about how grateful they were for Sister Baker and I helping them in some way. It humbled me so much because I have not even felt like I have done much at all and it was such a testimony to me of how the Spirit works. We be obedient and do what is right and the Spirit will be there. I LOVE MY LIFE!!!:) 

I know the church is true. I love being a missionary and I hate how fast the time goes. It is insane! I love you all! Keep smiling!

Love, Sister McKee

Week #38: Hello!!

Hello family!!

            Happy Wedding to Sierra and Brady!!!!!! I cannot believe that my best friend is getting married. It is surreal I am so happy she has all of you to be there for her!! She is amazing. Give her a HUGE hug from me this weekend!!  It has been a great week and sounds like it has been so exciting for you guys! I was so excited to finally find out the name of Kaydri! That is adorable! So Caroline, Tanner, Kaydri.. and another cute baby boy!!! I am excited to meet all of them. Try to keep them small! 

            Well this week there were a lot of people who I got told to tell people hi to! I love it but I have to right it down because the Battalion has been insanely busy haha. The first ones are Derrek and Stacy Sharp who lived in Pocatello and were in Jim's ward when he was the bishop. They said they love him so much! Then The Wawra family who know Justin Dabell and their daughter works with him at the PLay Mill! So if you see him tell him hi from them haha! Also the Matthews and Carlings from Filmore, Utah. They know Elder Lund and Elder and Sister Christensen very well. Especially when Elder Christensen was in their Stake Presidency! By the way.. Tell Elder Lund hi!! I would love to email him sometime. He will always be such an example/ big brother to me along with the other great elders in Nashville! And Elder and Sister Robinson who served in Hartford, KY in our mission came to the Battalion. The said they have so many other connections with playing in a band with Roy and Grandpa. And then the Jenks family whose brothers family lives in Riverton, WY and know Michelle and Travis! Also super fun because they know my friend Tyler from American Fork. So as you can see busy Battalion week! Which is so fun! Oh and I found out that a girl in our ward, Rochelle Leavitt, who is awesome, served with Aaron Horton in Chile! Crazy!

                We have seen miracles like crazy lately! Yesterday it was about 102 degrees and super humid. We noticed a name on our list that we hadn't seen yet and so we decided to walk to his house. Well we got there and he goes, "Sisters!? Come in!" We talked with him and he grew up in Utah and got baptized when he was 17 years old. When he moved to California he went to a family ward them stopped for 3 years. He said he had been praying to figure out how to get back to church and he decided to take work off yesterday because he was sick. Well we came right when he was normally at work. He was elated and he is so ready to come back to church. He said, "Don't worry sisters I am really ready to come back, I am not flaky with commitments like a lot of people are. I will be there Sunday."  It was such a tender mercy! 

               It is amazing how many people really are prepared. Andrea is going to be baptized next week! She has been inviting everyone from the ward to it and she is so excited. Adrian will also be baptized this month. We have seen a miracle with his debt that needs to be paid off and he will be eligible soon enough. We did a blitz last week for our Zone where we go and contact a long list of names for a specific ward. Well we were able to street contact a lot and we found 3 people who have been less active for years and their records are lost so we were able to refer missionaries over. God is so aware of us and the little details. Another miracle is that almost every single lesson we have taught for the last couple weeks has been with a member. It makes such a huge difference! We have been going on splits almost every day. It is such a good way for us to meet members one on one and help them get inspired to do mission work. I love it all. 

               Part of our calling here at the Mormon Battalion is each Saturday 2 sisters get to go down to old town and serve with the volunteers in old town and help them with whatever they need. Last week Sister Baker and I got to do it and we made a homeade stew on the first with biscuits and homemade cheese. Ya it was pretty awesome. I felt like a chef. It was such a good way to talk to the volunteers and visitors about the church and the Mormon Battalion. Dad - you would LOVE old town. Every single employee and volunteer have to wear old pioneer clothes and they have to live as if it were the 19th century. So literally we have to drink out of china, cook any food over the fire and make our own cheese and butter.. Which we did. It is the best. We get quite a lot of members who come there, but also a ton of less actives! They always recognize us with the tags and get reminded where they need to be. I committed a lot of them to go back to church. They will. 

              Wow so many miracles. I will end with this one. Another part of our mission is that we get to answer the chats for the people that have questions on mormon.org. Well Sister Sanchez and I got to do it last week and there is a guy who I had a great conversation with who accepted a book of mormon and missionaries. He lives in Utah and he has been curious about all this mormon chatter. He loves it and he just emailed me today! He has a lot of questions, but he will definitely be baptized soon. I am excited for him. I would love for you all to go to that baptism - maybe it will fall on a day where you are at a doctor's appointment. I love my mission. I cannot even believe it is August this week. Holy Moly!! Time is insane. Well I love this work. I love you all. I have been reading so much about the details of Christ's atonement and the pain he went through. It is amazing. I am in awe at all that he did for us. It is a shame to know how many people choose to disregard the fact that we are saved because of His ultimate sacrifice. I am so thankful that I know that and that I am able to use that atonement every day. I make way too many mistakes, but I know that I am progressing and that is what matters. We are all progressing and as we choose to be a little better each day we will see an increase. I love this gospel. It is true. If you are questioning that at all get down on your knees. He is real. I love you all. Thank you for being such an amazing family. I see the world in such a new light here in California. There is rarely we find an investigator who does not have a broken home. It breaks my heart, but gives me such a gratitude for what I know and where I was born. 

               Also, I heard about that Texas family. So sad. I have been keeping that 15 yr old girl in my heart and prayers. I hope that Jensen and Ean will get to talk to her someday. Good this the church is true. 

Have the best week! Tell Sierra that I love her so much!!

                                                             Love,  Sister McKee:)