Sister Malena McKee : Hide and Seek with Jesus

Hey everyone!

Another great week deep in the heart of Texas! The weather has been great! And I actually mean that, I saw a cloud in the distance one day and it's cooled down to a nice 95⁰.

This week had a lot going on! We tried to do some finding but knocked a lot and no one wanted to recieve eternal salvation (ugh):

One lady smiled and said hi when she answered then she saw our tags and suddenly she was mute and slowly closed the door. No, I didn't try using sign language on her, I learned the hard way.

Other people, when we knocked, they always say "oh don't worry, I've found Jesus." What does that even mean?!? Is everyone in Texas playing a big game of hide and seek with Jesus that I didn't know about?! As for me, I'm still looking. It's like a game of hot and cold. We're all slowly getting hotter or colder depending on how hard we look.

Another woman was a bible request and we went to her house and after she yelled at us through the door for a few minutes, she opens her blinds and (shes also in only a towel) says "Is that one of those moron books? I don't want a moron book, just a Bible!" So we give her a Bible and she says that we can come teach her any time... I think I'll use my "moron" book.

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We found a couple...well actually they found us! We were walking to the apartment of someone we're teaching and this woman walks out of her apartment and says “Hi, I am BOOMEE" and she was this awesome African lady who told us she wants us to come back and teach her. Then, she brought her whole family out they stood behind us while we knocked. It was lucky no one was home. So, we came back and she was going to work, but her and her husband told us when to come back and they really want to learn about God! It was so awesome! I am so excited to teach them!

A woman called me an Energizer bunny this week (I think she was exasperated by my attempts to come back) but I think it means I'm doing something right!

We had another lesson with Griselda and her husband, Kenneth, who's a member! She is so sweet and we talked about commandments. I was trying to explain why we need daily scripture study, prayer and going to church every week and suddenly this analogy popped into my head and I didn't even take time to double check it before I said “It's like having a water cup and a syringe... you can only put a drop if water in the cup at a time, but over time the cup gets full! And then you can..." and then I realized that analogy was not so good and they were laughing at me. But her husband said "I know you think that analogy was terrible but it's actually what I was thinking I just didn't know how to put it into words!" So that was good. Sometimes analogies don't make sense and that's okay! Sometimes we just have full cups and nothing to do with them.

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So we tried to do a lot of Inactive member work. We visited this couple one night and it was so sad. They happily bragged about how they haven't been to church in 8 years. They didn't care if I shared a spiritual message (I did anyways) and they have 0 desire to grow their faith or testimony because it would get in the way of their grudges and lifestyle. Why would anyone NOT want to grow closer to God?? It can't do anything but good! And this couple kept going on and on about how active they used to be and how much everyone loved them but they are missing the most important step of enduring to the end! It made me so sad for them. It makes me sad to see these people who could be so happy by living the gospel, but they are so scared to let go of the worldly things that are holding them back.

In Alma 23:6-8 it talks about the Lamanites and how they became fully converted unto the Lord and "laid down their weapons of rebellion and no longer fought with God". What weapons of rebellion are we holding onto? We all have our favorite sins, we all have something that is holding us back from fully living the gospel, and it's scary to let that go. I invite all of you to think of what your weapons of rebellion are and think of how we can bury them and move on from our grudges so we can no more fight against God and become fully converted into the Lord.

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This week at Arlington Charities we helped pass out food to people at it was a ton of people. And I was in charge of bread and watermelons. The two most saught after things. It was so hectic But one woman, I swear "subtly" took home like 8 watermelons. People were going crazy for them. I felt like a banker when the market crashed in 1929 and everyone wanted their money and I couldn't supply it all (how did I get only get a 1 on the APUSH exam??).

Anyway, I love you guys! I pray for you all!

Sister McKee

Would you look at that pretty sunset!