Week #7: It's gonna take WORK!

¡ Hola mi familia!

This is my first PDAY in Ecuador! It was interesting to fly such a long flight and not have a time change! Right now it is 11.15am. My first night here, we had an hour or 2 to work, and my companion asked me if I just wanted to rest and sleep because of my day of traveling. I said no I am here to work! Well in that 90 minutes I recieved almost 40 mosquito bits on my legs! But I will always remember that first night. I know that I am here to invite others to come unto Christ, and every day I am learnng more that this work is not about me. 

I am in the area of Los Helechos, in the Santay 1 ward. The people here are incredible. Althought I cannot understand them, I do know that they do SO much for the missionaries here. My companion brought some music with her and so we listen to Nashville Tribute Band ALL the time in our casa. I love it. It motivates me to work, and brings back my favorite memories of Nasvhille. A couple fun stories from this week:

1. My companion is from Chile, and knows fairly good english, which is a blessing and a curse! But, the President has said that during Language Study she is to study english, and I spanish obviously. I can only imagine how strange it looks to see us walking down the dirt streets here, haha. and occaisionally someone will drive by and say in English, "Hello, Gringo!" haha. 

2- We took an investigator, Brigit, (17) to New Beginnings Saturday, and it reminded me of a year ago when all 10 of us girls went with Dad to the New Beggings for Young Womens in Nashville. I loved my Young Womens experience! It is still weird for me to attend Relief Soeciety every week haha.

3. Saturday our toilet quit working. Haha. We couldn´t decide if we should buy a plunger or wait and buy one on Pday. We decided, we would need to use our toilet, but as sisters we have to be in our house at 8.30 at the latest, and it was 8.25! So.. instead of buying one, we went contacting... for plungers! haha. We knocked on all of the doors on our street asking if we could borrow a plunger. Turns out a member had one.. it was a funny night though. haha.

Right now we have 13 investigators with a baptismal date!! The Saturday before I arrived was the Baptism of a 20 yr old names Kevin. He was confimed Sunday! And wants to serve a mission. It is so fun to teach him, because he has such a strong desire to learn and progress in the gospel. We teach him at the house of his friend (Brigit) And we are also teaching Brigit, and her Mother, Monica. (Monica reminds me of Heather Rolapp haha) They are really progressing, and we teach them almost every day. 

The Relief Society President arranges our lunch every day. And every day I have been here it has been hot soup (which is so confusing to me? haha. Most peope use their napkins at meal times to wipe their mouth...here we use them to wipe the sweat from our face!!) meat, and rice. MOUNTAINS OF RICE. We only have lunch appointments, and no dinners. Usually I am never hungry at dinner time so  I havent even thought about it! 

My area is about 30 mins outside of Guayaquil, and today we are going to Guayaquil to see the Park of the Iguanas. (ew!) haha. There are alot of little geckos here similar to Hawaii, but I have only seen one iguana so far that was about 3 or 4 feet long. luckily it was quite some distance from me. So no- your package did not arrive. The mission said that any package that is over 4 pounds has to go through some long system and takes months and months to get here.. So they said, by the end of your mission you should have that! I wish they would have said that in our mission pakcet. Anyways, they gave me a new address too, but remember it needs to be under 4 pounds. And honestly, I am doing fine. Anything I need, I should be able to find here. I also found my piano book too. Do not worry about sending anything! I know it is expensive, and I know that you love me! I am doing great!

here is the addres: 

Hermana Angelee McKee

Mision Ecuador Guayaquil Norte

Casilla de correo 16160

Guayaquil, Ecuador

this is for letters and packages!

I want you to know that I know this gospel is true. It is amazing to me to teach the people here who have never heard of anything about the LDS church, or Jose Smith, or the Book of Mormon, it just makes sense! If God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, of course he would continue to call prophets! The language is what I struggle with the most. It is easy to be discouraged and feel like I am not fulfilling my purpose because of this, but I have faith it will come little by little, as long as I do ALL I can do. I just hope that I am doing my part. 

Aubrey, congrats on you Jr. Miss, i wish I could have been there! Know that I was thinking of you .And thank you for your email. I love that you said, you are praying that I will understand a little more of the language every day. I am too, I know it will come in little by little. Thank you for all your emails! And Kirsten thank you for the pictures! Charlie makes a cute Jack o lanteren! Thanks again for all of the birthday wishes. I love you all so much! 

If there is anyway, I would love it if you could email me the photo of our family sealed at the temple. 

Con Amor,

Hermana McKee

Week #6: Off to Ecuador!

Muchas Gracias for all of the birthday wishes. My companions were so nice to me, and I loved getting to see conference for my birthday. It was a great present. I was thinking, a year ago, I was woken up with balloons and confetti by the Sister Missionaries, Sister littleford, and alphin, and Heather Rolapp haha with birthday cake remix from Coldstone! That year as gone fast! My companion left this morning, and so I am with my roomates who are emailing, so I wanted to share some things I learned from conference, and also some photos. 

First of all, Did you all see the guy in the choir that looked like Tad Hancock? haha.  I also got to see the Womens Meeting Saturday night, and thought it was an amazing! I love those meetings, they are super powerful. 

I enjoyed every session of conference so much. The talks were amazing. I feel like they were centered on strengthening your conversion so that you are able to defend your faith in this crazy world. There was also a emphasis on member missionary work. Im excited to work with the members in ecuador! I really enjoyed Bishop Stevensons talk, talking about the Olympics, and how those athletes prepare all of their lives for their 4 minutes. That related alot to my life, and my mission. The clock is ticking!! Don{t idle your time with things that dont matter. 

They stressed alot on our familiy relationships. I am thankful that our family is as close as we are. I hope that we can continue to be close as our family grows bigger. Family is the only sure thing that we have for eternity. This I know to be true!! 

Happy Birthday Desi and Dallon! Have a great week, and I will email you from Ecuador next semana!

These photos are with Hermana Jones, (She is like the office angel here), Our district, and my birthday. 

Con Amor,

Hermana McKee

Semana #5: Zechariah 5:1

Hola mi Familia!

Hoy comenzo my seis semana aqui en la CCM. No puedo creer como rapido este tiempa hace que. Estoy muy agredicido por este oportunidad, y yo se que me lo ayudara en Ecuador y en my vida. Este ultimo pasado hay muchas momentos comicos:

1. We were in the auditorium, and my companion and I were trying to get our Distrcit Leaders attention, so we yelled Elder! And all of the elders turned and looked at us. I guess I can check that off my CCM Bucket list haha. 

2. My companion and yo try to eat with the latinos as much as we can. Whenever I introduce myself, they always say.. [Like Mickey Mouse?] haha. 

3. In one of my classes we played a game called BASTA!  It is like Scattagories, but its in Spanish.. haha sometimes I randomly start laughing trying to think of words, because of our family{s history with that game.. haha. Es broma. 

4. We had a first lesson with a new investigator this week. We new his name ahead of time, but knocked on the door as if it was the first contact. So I asked his name there, and then once in the room, I asked him to repita por favor por que I could not remember it! So then, I go to say the opening prayer, and ask if there is anything he would like me to pray for him. He asked to pray for Him.... him... ok what is his name.?! haha. I prayed a prayer within a prayer to try and rememeber his name! Nada. haha. So I just made one up and mumbled it... and then comitted myself to always remember their names. haha. 

So you all got some snow for your April Fools day, eh? How fitting! It is a hot 77 degrees here! This week was a great week. I took advantage of every hour of study time I have because I am getting nervous for going to Ecuador next week! I really enjoy the study time I get. I struggle alot with the conjegations for all of the verbs in Spanish, there are like 10 different tenses! haha Im sure when we teach, our investigators are just thinking: Just Spit it out already!!  haha

 I plan on finishing the BOM (LdM) this week, and starting over. Will you all read with me?? We are teaching 3 prog. investigaotrs as of now, Genaro, Daniella, y, Jasmine. They all have dates. And we only teach them one more time before we leave. I am not sure when I leave, although I think it is sometime tuesday. I will be able to email you Saturday Night to confirm all of that. 

This week our teacher should us an incredible youtube about Missionary Work and The Atonement. I think those 5 or 10 minutes was probably the highlight of my week. Very powerful words coming from Pres. Eyring, and Elder Holland. Every tuesday night we always have a devotional. Usually we get a translator, but last week was our first week without one! It is so draining to translate for a straight hour! haha. but the Spirit taught me alot through his words. Our branch also sang a spanish him at that Devotional. This week was our last week with our Branch also because of la Conferencia General. (Woohoo!) Im so excited for that! I guess Mexico does a time change on Sunday, so our sunday sessions are at 11 and 3. Anywho, we took pictures with them, they are so great. Right now we are the only district in our branch, because our second one left for San Diego this morning!! Kylie better take of them! They{re great. On Wednesday we get another one though. Right now there are prob. 300 missionaries here a la CCM, but this summer they plan on gettin 1200!! 

     HEY HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT!! 

Thank you for all of your emails, and I got a letter from Elder Stringam this week too!! Thank you for that advice Elder Stringam. I appreciate the prayers, and the thoughts. I love and miss you all so much!! 

Les Amo,

Hermana McKee

Semana #4: One month down!

Hola mi Familia!!

It is a gorgeous day here in Mexico City. This week flew by SO fast! I learned so much though, and had some way cool experiences. heres a few fun things that happened

1. There is an Elder Turman in my district who frog yawns!!! haha. He did it in class, and our class was like what was that?? He said, i dont really know what to call it but its like a hiccup (hipo in spanish) and a burp. I said, Elder Turman.. I know exactly what you mean!! haha. And whether you believe it or not, our whole family does it. I just happen to do it more.

2. My Roomate Hermana Bartholomew knows Sister Valentines brother, Grant? i think. small world.

3. There are a few polyneisian missionaries here, and it makes me SO homesick for Hawaii. haha. It is fun to here them speak Spanish. One Elder left this week, and Sunday night (Every sunday is like transfer night, they have a little slideshow and we sing PARA SIEMPRE DIOS ESTE CON VOS  or God Be With You) he walked up and gave the CCM Presidency candy leis that he had made. It reminded me of my Graduation, and of Hawaii in general. Great people.

4. It is easy to mix up these Spanish words quite a bit!!! I need to start writing down some of these. haha I asked our investigator to read God (Dios) instead of verse 10 (Diez) woops!

So last wednesday, as a district we were able to teach a lady named Araceli, and she is a less active. It was a little interesting because we taught her via Skype! So thrown in some technical glitches, and then trying to understand her spanish.. haha. There was no way we could do that without the Spirit. As we started and asked if we could begin with a prayer, we asked if there was anything we could pray for her, she just started crying and asked to pray for her family. As the elders began to teach, they struggled with their spanish quite a bit, she stopped them and said, [Elders, Im not going anywhere, take your time the spirit will help you.] It was super cool. 

This week I learned alot about how important it is to follow spiritual promptings and how we usually think they need to be spiritual promptings from the beginning, but Elder Bednar taught us through a devotional this week (via video)  that we need to not worry about whether it is our own thoughts or the Spirit. Just do it!!! He said that many times it will only be a thought, but as you follow the prmpting it will become a spiritual experience. I need to apply that better in my teaching. We also heard a great Devo by Elder Holland. He mentioned that the ancient prophets and saints sacrificed and worked so hard although they knew they would not succeed. Why? Because they knew we would. This work we are doing is like ¨[Spiritual Heart Surgery] and Elder Nelson studied for 12 years to be a heart surgeon, how much more studying do we need to do? 

The Hermanas in my branch are heading to Kylies Mission next week! They are super great. Im gonna miss them. It sounds like you all are enjoying your Spring breaks! Mom and Dad are getting a feel for the empty nest, eh? haha. Im excited to watch General Conference here soon. I read a great talk from Elder. Uchtdorf called No Ordinary Blessing, that changed my perspective of Conference! Check it out. Our Investigator Jasmine went to church! Yahoo! And our teacher, Hermano Mendoza (the Latino Elder McDermott haha) We said goodbye to him this week he is moving to SLC. I'll attach a photo. 

You all enjoy your Spring Breaks!! Thank so much for the emails, the prayers, and the support.

Love you all!

Hermana McKee

Semana Three: We picked the get out of Jail Free Card!

Hola Familia!

It is a beautiful day here in Mexico. Today our branch was able to visit the Temple, but unfortunately just the visitor center because the temple is closed for quite some time. We got on the bus, and our leader said, you all picked the get out of jail free card today! It was really great to see the culture and the people of Mexico City. Here are some fun things that happened this week!

1. Whenever I{d read Kylies emails of all the connections she makes I would always think, man there is NO way that I will have any connections where Im going. Well... 1) Elder Erchanbrack in my distrcit is from UT and he is cousins with the Northrups in the Chub. 1st ward! 2) Elder Goff in my distrcit is cousins with DIRK who I met the first day in Hawaii. and 3) Hermana Ferrell knows Lindsay Hawkins from BYU Jer. 

2. My companion and I were called to be the new Sister Training Leaders this week. It will be great to get to know the other hermanas better. 

3. I had to give my talk in Sacrament Mtg. on Sunday, it wasn{t all that bad! luckily none of us are that great at Spanish.. so they understand. haha the struggle is real folks! 

4. On my way to email I met an Elder Spencer who is going to Nashville!!

We have 2 investigators right now Jasmine, and Daniella. Daniella has a date set for April 8th! Im so happy every chance we get to teach or roleplay, especially in spanish. My morning teacher (the Latino Elder McDermott)  had us roleplaying in English to make sure we understood the fundamental we were learning, and right after my comp. and I had to go teach a lesson. I went blank! My mind was in English mode and it was a rough lesson! haha.

Conference is coming up! I hope you are all preparing for that. And invite someone to watch with you!  Im super excited for that. We were able to listen to Elder Hollands, FEED MY SHEEP talk for the second time in 2 weeks. I love that talk so much. Also, 2 members in the MTC Presidency were in the 70 at one point, Pres. Pratt and Tenorio Pres. Tenorio gave a talk in conference in 2007 about Eternal families that we got to listen too. Look it up if you get the chance! Its only 8 mins. His son is our branch presdent here.

One of the many things I learned this week is that every day of our lives is a gift from the giver, and to always be better today then you were yesterday. I read a great talk by Brad Wilcox called His Grace is Sufficient, I wish I would have read that before I gave my Farewell talk. There is so much I dont understand about the Atonement. Pero, I{ve learned that If dont have Charity and I am nothing. If I dont love my investigators I cannot teach them.

Desi, how was the drive? Just wait a few more years, youll be proud of what youve done! :) Congrats to Brittany too!! We are gonna have a little Curly Sue! I wasnt able to see the youtube video.. but I bet it was super cute. Thanks for all the emails, I looke forward to hearing from you all week! My Pday is so great because of that.. and because its always Pizza night from Costco. haha. My Spanish is coming along.. is still pretty rough! The locals talk so fast!! Tomorrow our district is having a SOLO ESPANOL day. It may turn into CHARADES DAY haha. I know with every fiber in me that If I am doing all I can do, and being obedient that when I am in the field I will be able to speak espanol. 

Love,

Hermana McKee

Week #2: Semana Dos is brought to you by the letter... P

HOLA!

Today is my P day. It is a great day! Seems strange not to have every minute of the day Planned. This week was a lot of studying, sitting, and eating. haha. but luckily we get an hour to workout everyday and I love that hour. So here are a few fun interesting things ...

1. Look uP the fruit granada china. It looks like an alien on the inside but taste really good!

2. The PurPle trees here look like the white trees in Brentwood during the sPringtime. 

3. We had a lesson on stress management and they showed a video that was filmned from the Provo MTC. Elder Stringams wife, Rachel was in it.. haha she said "when im stressed i get a hot face and turn red, and little things really start to bug me!" so watch out E. Stringam!

4. This comPuter shows the weather in Places you type in. one night, when it was 8pm here it was 66, and 50 back home, and 86 in Ecuador at 9pm. wow!

5. Shout out to sister Jensen!! We short sheeted our roomate the other night. Nough said. 

So this week we finished teacher Cesar, we set a date!! I wanted to call you Dad and scream!! We only taught him 5 times and the 4th time, I invited him to be baPtized, and he said that he would if he felt the sPirit tell him to. Well, mi comPanera thought he had said he felt the spirit tell him yes. haha so she said, "ah, I feel it too!". We both kind of looked at her weird, and just moved on haha. But later we talked about it and had a good laugh! The next lesson we had him Pray there with us, and as he prayed, he began to cry and said that he knows he should do these things. WELL the next day, we begin having a 2nd class period in the afternoon... and guess who walks in to be our teacher.. Cesar! It was a fun surprise. He is a great teacher. 

I feel like my SPanish is coming along, then I sit in a lesson. haha. No Im surPrised how much has come back from Highschool. I learned to talk in future tense this week and I feel like Im in a whole new world!!

So this week we got 2 new investigators (they are just are teachers) but they sPeak only sPanish! It is definately hard to teach a full lesson in spanish in only 20 mins. haha. Our sundays here, they assign your district a toPic, and everyone writes a talk in sPanish, and then you never know if youll get called on to sPeak! It made me wonder how funny that would be if we did that in our home wards hahah. My comPanion and I taught district meeting this week, on Charity. Ah! It was so great to teach in English!! I learned that "Charity never faileth" and so to be a successful missionary. I need Charity. Without charity I am nothing. 

Thank you for all your emails!! It is so great hearing from you all. I miss you all alot. Luckily theres no time to think about you here or Id miss you too much! :) Hope Steveo, Rach, and Mike had good birthdays! Thanks for your Prayers. I need them! 

Love you! 

Hermana McKee

Granada China

 Hermana McKee's house

Short-sheeting (That's for you Hiedi Jensen)

Semana Uno!

Hola my familia! That is about all the Spanish I know. Just kidding. I feel like I´ve learned so much here already... I know, everyone says that. But its true. One being that I can type on a spanish keyboard.. for the most part. So some fun facts here at the Mexico CCM (MTC)

1. The weather is GREAT here. It is like an Idaho summer. Not hot at all, dry, and the mornings and evenings are a little chilly. I love it. 

2. There are palm trees, trees that look like ginormous pineapples, and trees with purple blossoms all over!!

3. Our family is one to know that whatever the church does, they do it top notch. This campus is a testimony of that. It is gated from the city to be kept safe, but it is like a little city! We have casas, houses, a gym, la tienda, store, and mas. 

4. My companion, Hermana Sokolowski, is from Mantica CA. and is going to Orlando FL. Shes great. Her personality is like a mix between Seren and Kiara haha. Its great.  Our 2 other roomates are going to MY MISSION! WOOHOO! And one of them is Elder Olsen (yes, Joseph Smith) from Nashville{s SISTER!!! Crazy, right? We will get a photo to send.

So This week as been amazing. Thank you for all of your emails, I love reading emails from my family they make me so happy. Charlies baptism sounds like it was great! Aub sounds like you gave a great talk! Way to go! Congrats Charlie! So the temple is closed for 2 years I heard for renovation? Pero we get to go to the Visitors center a few times while were here. OH! Remember a kid names Josh Rees from Clarksville ward? Well he was here! He just leftSUnday to Cassidy{s mission! NY NY South. And I met an Hma. Schultz who said she babysait for JoLynns grandkids? Small world, eh?  

So We arrived wednesday night, everything went great. Friday we taught our first lesson.. ya. thats what I was thinking. haha. How am I supposed to teach a lesson? IN SPANISH: Well, we did. His name is Cesar, (we found out he becomes our night teacher eventually) He seemed so bored in the first lesson.. haha. So the next day, we taught him about prayer and tried to get to know him and his family better. He brok down and started crying!! He started going off about problems at home that he didn{t know what to do. My comp. and I looked at each other like.. uh, we have no clue what he is saying and we did not prepare vocab for that! haha. The gift of tongues is real people! No.. i couldn{t speak fluent, but we were able to catch bits and pieces of his concerns, and recieve revelation for what to teach him next. Well, we taugh him again yesterday and he totally FELL ASLEEP during our lesson. I had to wake him up! Ah! I was so frustrated. So we decided tomorrow, we are going in with no notes, no books. only a hymn book, and a dictionary and teach from the heart what we can. 

Sounds like the Parrish Funeral was a good experience. I was sure thinking about them alot that day. Hey.. shout out to all those with Birthday this week! Mike, Rach, and Steve? si? Yall are old.. haha. 

Were you able to ship my bedding? Everything really is great here. The Spanish is coming along, and I know if I do my part the Lord will bless me. Thats the important part right_? Scott, (or anyone) do you remember the up lesson? Id love to get that. And any inspired questions in Spanish? Those are tough to translate as of right now. Listening to Cesar there was so much I wanted to tell him.... in English! haha. Spanish I had no idea. im pretty sure I made the mistake of saying.. you can be cleansed from your fish! (pecados is sin, but pescados is fish.) woops! 

Well, I hope you all have a great week! You can write me on Dearelder.com for free. just select the mexico MTC. Thanks for all the pics and emails! Sure love you all. Here are some pictures of the campus, my comp. and Elder Rees from TN. 

Hermana McKee