Semana #30: Una semana nueva!

Buenas Dias mi familia!!

I usually write so fast, and I´m losing my english that you all probably never understand the little part that I write about my week. I decdied that one day I will want to go back and read my emails, so I should slow down and have sense in what I´m writing, no? haha.

Fun/interesting/cutural things from this week!

-Bueno, Last Pday we went to the 7 waterfalls!!! It was so pretty, and felt so good to go on a nice long hike. We took pictures by each water fall, and had a really fun time! We went with the other missionaries and converts

-I gave my first talk in Sacrament Meeting  this Sunday in Spanish! Haha. Can you believe I went 6 months without speaking? Ive shared my testimony many times, but this was the first time I had to speak. I´m glad it was when I had 6 months and not 2 or 3 because I felt a little better with my Spanish! 

-We were walking down the street contacting one day, and suddenly there was this cow in the middle of the road! haha. The truth is there are always random animlas in the street so I wasn´t too surprised.. but still It was pretty great . 

Now I am alone with the Hermana TeÓ from Laie, Hawaii. We think we had Book of Mormon class together at BYUHawaii! She is really great, we have lots of fun, and she teaches me alot with her example and way of teaching our investigatores. Hermana Flores left yesterday with Presidente, and returns to her home tomorrow. 

In the mission, we are focusing on finding and teaching families. As a mission we have a goal to be teaching 15 families. Right now, Hermana TeÓ y me have 10 familias. They are all progressing in the speed, and President Riggins told us that we are to have 15 families, not to have better numbers and higher baptisms, but to learn Patience. Which is what we are doing :) 

We are teaching the Familia Ajon, and they are progressing really well! Their son, Luis already is member, and we are teaching his 2 sisters and parents. They are just waiting to get married, and they will baptzed! They love attending the church, and learning more about Christ. Also, we are teaching La familia Tipantuña, Hermana Luis is working on stop drinking but they both loved the mesage of the Restoration. They said is makes sense! I´d have to agree with them!! :)

There is so many great things happening in our area, and so many great people. There are so many who need the message of the Gospel, however don´t understand the difference it can make in their lives if they don´t APPLY it . That is what I am learning. In prepariing for General Conference, I have been reading the Liahaona from the past conference, I read the Talk by ELder Hales, If you love my keep my commandments. I learned alot about the Savior in this talk, about his example of obedience. If we love our Savior, we will be obedient, becuase we love him, not becuase we have too, or are obligated, or justify it. It is all because we love our Savior. 

Brayden and Jaren look taller than Dad in your photo! That sounds like a great choir. And I´m jelaous of the weekend yall spent with Elder Hinckely. Sounds amazing!! Good luck with everything you are doing! Staying really busy as always. Dont be afraid to rest a little, eh? :) I hope all the familiy is doing great, been a while since I´ve heard from everyone :) haha. But glad that you all are well. Who are you going to invite to Conference? 

Until Next week!

Les Amo,

Hermana McKee

Semana #29: hola!

Famila!! 

I don´t have a lot of time to write today because we are going to spend our Pday at the waterfalls!!! So I will send lots of pictures next week. 

This week we had stake conference, and we heard some great talks, especially our mission president and his wife. Eric, who was baptized 1 month ago, recieved Priesthood Melcehsidek. and is preparing for the mission! Its incredible. 

Also, last pday, we recieved a message that a new missionary would arrive in Valencia at 6pm, and we were super cconfused because we thought we didn´t have transfers! Well, turns out we are in a trio, because the next week Hermana Flores goes home. Now, We have Hermana Te´Ò!!! She is from Hawaii!!! We actually think we had Book of Mormon together.. haha she is from Laie, and went to BYU hawaii the same semester as me. She has 8 months in the mission, and is way fun. 

This week I learned and thought alot of the Atoement, and how Christ did things that maybe he didn´t want to, but he was never "off duty" He did it to be obedient. I thought about how the mission is preparing me to be a mom, and how my mom was never off duty. Its easy to say, I have already done so much, I deserve to rest, I want to sleep! haha. Sometimes  I feel like that as a missionary, but it is not an excuse not to talk to the people that I pass everyday. 

Thanks for the prayers, emails, and love! I will write more next week!

Congrats Brayden for being worthy to baptize your friend!! Good work.

Love,

Hermana McKee

Semana #28: Pears!

Buenas Dias!

It was super fun to hear from everyone this week. Still haven´t heard from Scott and Seren in about 6 months... they still living? :)   Just kidding. I know that you are all staying super busy, and those babies are getting super big!! Thanks for all the pictures. Glad that everything is going well. Mom and Dad sound like they are enjoying Nashville, super fun that you get to go back and visit. 

A few things from this week:

-Last PDay, I received my first Ecuadorian haircut! haha. My companion wanted Hermana Rosa from the ward to cut her hair, and so she offereed to trim mine as well. ( I was alittle nervous because there are a lot of people here that say the cut hair.. and they cut hair, its true, but it doesn´t always turn out great haha.) She cut and straightned out hair and her husband has a photo shoot business, so we took some photos too. 

- This week we had a Conference for all of the Hermanas in the mission at the Mission Home. It was increible! Brought back many memories. haha. And the best was we ate cinnamon rolls, and homemade choc. chip cookies.. I have missed those!! 

- My companions past companion is called Hermana Rust, and apparently she knows Kylie! I met her at the confernece, and she said you are the sister to Kylie? I had to think, because I hadn´t heard her name for a while haha. But Yes, I am :) 

-Elder Rounds, who is one of the AP´s, is from Preston, and is really good friends with Elder Farrell, and also Zack Petersen, my cousin, haha. How is Zack doing? How much time does he have left? I should write him.

- We have an investigator named Jony, and he lost his phone, so we havenñt been able to contact him, nor find him at his home, work, nada. On Saturday we went to the church to start our fast, in which we prayed that we could find Jony. We left the church, and In front of our eyes was Jony!!! Walking towards the church. He said that he had just finished work and decided to go home to sleep, but he wanted to pass by the church, and didn´t know why. We knew why :) How efficient are our prayers!! 

Well, today is the first day of a new transfer and still I am here with the Hermana Flores en Valencia. She has 2 weeks left in her mission! (I guess you could say I´m killing her from the mission haha) Valencia is so great, the members are amazing. As a stake we are focusing on rescuing all those who are Menos Activos, because for years and years missonaries have baptized and baptized, but they have all gone in active. And there are so many men without the preisthood. For this we havent had a lot of success in finding alot of investigators, but we are focusing on establishing the church here. 

The Conference we had with Pres. and Hermana Riggins was amazing. I learned so much about myself and progression in the mission and in life. Christ is our role model for everything we do. Althought we will not be perfect in this life, its always a process, and like dad always says, never plataue, right? 

I was able to see lots of sisters that I love at the confernce! including Hermana LAtorre, my trainer, and the sister from my group at the CCM. I will attach fotos. 

Thank you for all your prayers, Aubrey wrote me about Marshall, I am praying for his health too! I always loved to read his funny blog post with his optimism in spite of his health. And he is a true Jazz fan too :) Praying that he can heal. 

Thanks for the emails, photos, and prayers! Love you all. Have a great week!!

Hermana McKee

Semana #27: Hola!

Buenas Dias familia!

How sad that your summer is ending.. but sounds like you all are enjoying it! This week here in Valencia we had alot of sunshine, and its always nice and warm :)

A few interestings/funnies from this week:

-There is a new Elder here in our zone who knows the Valentine family in Sandy, and was also in the MTC with the brother of sister valentine. 

-Yesterday we were teaching Erik (converso) of the 10 commandments, we were reading about the commandment number 4 and it lists all the people in the household that shouldn´t work. one of which says "extranjero" (which in spanish means foriengers) He paused and looked at me and said, Hey no worries hermana mckee, you don´t have to work here in Ecuador. haha. it was a good time, but maybe ya had to be there. haha

We were able to attend the temple with our ward this week and with our conversos recientes. We went with Erik, and the other missionares in our ward had 2 others but the sisters were sick, so we accompanied them too. It was incredible to watch Erik be baptized for his father, he is progressing SO much. He now comes to church in a white shirt and tie, and yesterday he blessed the sacrament, recieved a calling, and stayed to attend Missionary Preparation. This work is amazing. 

This week, during our day of contacting, it was super hard!! I´m pretty sure we found every Catholic here in Valencia who "is catholica and wants to die catholic" It was a really rough week. As a mission we have a goal to be teaching 15 families, and we are struggling with that. Its amazing how the Lord blesses us when we go the extra mile to knock on just one more door, or talk with one more person. We are planting seeds.

This week were exercising at the park, and we started talking with Johnny, he just moved here, and was able to come to church yesterday, and is preparing to baptism him 19 de Sept. Blessings! :)

I read an email from My friend Sister Goody who is serving in Oklahoma, was sad to hear about the wreck that happened there. We are praying for those families. 

This week is going to be a great one!! It is the last week of the change, I can´t believe how fast it goes. THanks for the fotos and the emails!! Love you all so much!! Thanks for the prayers also. Good luck to my sisters and my nephews in all your sports and activities.ANd reunion at Joylenns also, family is the most important of everythng. ENjoy every minute you can together! Tell everyone Hola de Hermana McKee y que necesitan invitar alguien a la iglesia este domingo. :) Good luck in your missionary work there!! 

Les Amo, 

Hermana McKee

Semana #26: Woohoo!!!

Hola famila!!! I really feel like I just wrote you, haha. This week went by so fast!! We weren´t in our area alot this week, but when we were... great things happened!!

First of all, I got your package!! Holy Cow!! (¡¡Santa Vaca!!) It was like Christmas morning. haha. Thanks so much, I wasn´t expecting so much!! I think i´m set for the next 12 months :) You all are the best. Mom and DAd thanks, I know that its not easy or cheap to send packages.

Ya, a few fun/funnies/interestings this week:

-Saturday is the party day here. EVERYONE plays music for everyone to hear. Its so hard to sleep Saturday night with all the noise, but when you are a tired missionary... itsnot too bad. haha. 

-This week we went to Guayaquil to go to the temple with the zones here in Quevedo. Thje bus ride is about 3 hours, and in the bus, there is usually a video. Well, una hermana brought the video of the Testaments and asked the driver if we could watch it. There was about 20 missionaries in the bus, and about 10 or 15 others. It was super cool to watch it, and see how many of them were interested! Some great referencias! 

-I play the piano every sunday in church.. People always tell me what a good job i do, I tell them, Thank my mother!! :) 

SO we left our area Wednesday in the afternoon and traveled to Guayquil. When we arrived we ate Pizza Hut because here in Quevedo there is no pizza! haha. So we took advantage of that. I turned around from eating and standing there was the hermana Latorre!! Mi mamita! My trainer!! There were traveling from the temple and so I was able to see her. That night we had planned to stay at the hotel that is at the temple, but we ended up staying at the apartment of the hermanas in the area. There  was 12 of us in a houws with 5 matresses 2 bathrooms, and we had to be ujp at 4.30 in the morning to go to the temple. ha! It reminded me of nashville... good times. Well, the temple was amazing!!! It was so refreshing to go to the temple. and Later we had a conference with PRes. and HErmana Riggins. They are the best!! I learn so much from them, and they always make it fun,  and have so much love. Just like Pres. and Sister McKee :)

Saturday, our investigator Jesus, who has 16 years and comes to church on his own every week wwith white shirt and tie, had his enterview Saturday, in the night, and the Elder came out and said is the font ready? We laughed jokingly saying, oh ya we called the firemen and they are on the way! He said, perfect! We are going to go find some white clothes and a towel for JEsus. We will be back soon! We thought he was kidding, but it was true!! haha. So Hermana Flores and I literally RAN to the firestation and asked them a favor if they could fill the font, and sure enought they came, and we had a baptism!! :)

Alot of our investigators right now are not progressing.. They just dont have desires! Its hard because we cant force and obligate them, only love and serve them. Well, I have been learning that my ALL is more then I think it is. I just have to open my mouth and invite, and fulfill my purpose. One day as we were walking down the street, we decided to open our mouths and we found David. We invited him to a Noche de hogar, and he went! And to church too! He is preparing for the 5 de Sept. Milagros.

Good luck in school this week!!! Love you lots!!

Hermana McKee

Semana #25: ¡Hola!

Hola familia!

I feel like I just wrote you all yesterday, this week went by really fast!  But there were lots of great things that happened!:

-Erik was baptized this week!!! Erik is 19 years old, and really has made a big change in his life. He has such a strong testimony, and his changes are slow, but the changes he makes are permanent. 

-This week I ate crab! Bueno, it wasn´t crab, it had a different name, but I dont remember, and I dont know what it is English, so lets just say I are crab. haha. I´ll attach a pic. It wasn´t too bad, difficult to eat, but was good. 

-Not sure if I already told you, but our days wednesday in the mission are finding days now. We don´t have fixed appointments, only are contacting! It helps my spanish alot :) Sometimes I find its hard to start up a conversation, but once I open my mouth, the Lord fills it. 

I can´t believe you all start school next week. That summer flew by! I can´t believe how fast the time goes. The mission really is the best, it is hard, but its worth it! I learned alot about opposition this week. If the mission wasn´t hard, I wouldnt be able to enjoy the joy and blessings of the mission. If no one ever offended you, you wouldn´t be able to learn forgiveness. Opposition is apart of life! To always be learning. That is something i remember steven wrote or told my at the beginning of my mission, that there are many things I will do wrong, or mess up, or wish I could do over in the mission, but I should only learn and move on. 

So, here in Valencia, we live and work in the city for the most part, but our area is really large, and so it covers lots of farm areas too. We walk everywhere! Luckily here there are more paved roads haha. We take the bus to farther places, or a tricimoto. Mom asked about my shoes.. haha ya its time for some new ones! But no worries, I will buy some here. 

We are teaching a couple named Carlos and Johanna, they are so great. We taught Carlos one night, and left him a chapter to read in the book of mormon, he called us the next day and said his dog ate his homework haha. His dog ate his book of mormon, haha. They are also preparing for baptism. 

Bueno, enjoy your last week of summer yall!! Gracias for all the cute pictures, I can´t believe Elder Horner is married, and that Elder Tondevold and Hermana Dodge came to visit.. They are the best. When do you all head to Nashville? 

Love you lots!!

Hermana McKee 

Semana #24: 6 months!

Buenas Dias familia! It was great to read all you emails. It sounds like you all had a great week, and a full weekend of weddings, family, and other fun stuff. Thanks for all the fun pictures! I will have to get those printed so I can show off my family! :)

A couple fun/interesting/cool things from this week:

-Not sure if I already wrote this, but our area is really big!! We live in the city, but our area covers lots of land, there are lots of farms here. Banana farms mostly, but lots of fruit! We are defintely in a higher altitude because it is alot different here then in Guayaquil. Very cloudy most days, and very fresca (I dont know if there is an english word for that? Maybe cooler?) And in the nights I sleep with my sheet, and sometimes no fan! 

-This week I was told I have a baby face :) haha. It made me think of that song mom has on her piano.. haha. I also got asked how many years I have lived in Ecuador? When I said 5 months, they were surprised because of my Spanish. haha. (I think they were just being nice). I still struggle with the language, but I do pretty good with church vocabulary :)

- Isaias was baptized this week!! But he slept in Sunday morning and so he wasn´t able to be confirmed... but this week he will! Also this week will be baptized Jesus (who has 16 years old) and also Eric (19)! 

-This week Hernan and his wife were married!! His wife is a member, and now Hernana can be baptized too!

Last week our Zone Leaders had a training meeting with Pres. Riggins and so we had a zone meeting to be able to learn what PResident Riggins taught. They started to share a story that Pres. Riggins shared, and all of the sudden I heard "Pocatello, Idaho". Haha. Turns out he shared the story of your friend, Dad, who was in the Hell´s Angels group and ended finding his brother in the mission. I was able to share at the end that he is now sealed in the temple. 

When are you heading to Nashville?? I´m super jealous!!! Tell everyone hi for me. I miss Nashville. Alot! There is an Elder Reyes here in the mission from Madison. HE was in the Spanish branch there, and knows Hermana Gold.. and more. Small World! 

This week I learned alot in my studies about having the courage to talk to everyone. In the mission now, we have every wednesdays only finding days. No planned appointments. Its easy to think that we are working when we track how many hours outside of the house we have, but we always need to be talking with people to find who are the prepared. I know this will help my SPanish too :) I actually really enjoy contacting, especially here in a new area, it helps to become more familiar with the people and the area. 

We found out that next week we get to go to the temple as a zone!! Im super excited for that. Pres. Riggins and his wife are so great, they do so much for us here and are always full of love. 

Thanks for all of your love and letters and pictures! No, I didn´t get any packages. I learned this morning that if you send packages to send them with the green sticker instead of the white sticker? Not sure what that means. Haha. But I guess green is quicker and cheaper. 

Mom and Dad hope you had a great anniversary! Sounds like Tanner had a great blessing too. Miss you all alot, but thanks for always writing and praying for me. Love you lots!

Les amo mucho!

Hermana McKee