Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!

Hey everyone! 

This week was a dousy, but it was also so awesome! 

First thing, I've been really homesick for Arlington. It was harder to leave Arlington than it was to leave for my mission. But, Tuesday night we were heading to dinner and I got a call! And Wilma was with the other sisters and she called me and we got to talk for a few minutes! It was so awesome, I don't know if its allowed, but it was a blessing to me. 

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We had our Christmas Conference with the northern part of the mission this week and it was so fun! We had a movie, made gingerbread houses and had a gift exchange! We made our gingerbread house a temple and one sister said "I want to make a dragon, it needs a dragon" and I said "there's a dragon in Revelations, it's biblically correct". So, when we were presenting our finished houses I read in the Revelations about the dragons and I thought it was funny, but no one else laughed. #awkwardmalenamoment

That night we had exchanges and I went up to Denton with Sister Cottle! It was so fun and I finally got to go to BUCK-EES! Aka the worlds largest gas station- only in Texas. It was so cool. I was in awe. We got lunch there from their own personal bbq station and I got a tshirt. Coolest ever. 

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We had a really good lesson with Joanna this week and she is so excited to learn and for us to teach her boys! As soon as we said the opening prayer she got teary and stayed teary the entire lesson. She told us she just had all these good feelings. We told her that the Holy Ghost tells us when things are true and she told us she knows that's what's happening!! She told us she will definitely read the Book of Mormon! 

Also, we tripled our teaching pool this week!! It was from 2 to 7, and we are super excited!!! We found 4 new people and then referred someone to the other missionaries! It's been so awesome and Sister Mabila is so excited to work! I think I'm wearing her out though because she keeps falling asleep randomly. Haha! She's such a hard worker though! 

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"Remember the reason for the season" 

Oh man, If I had a penny for everytime I heard that, I'd have enough to stack them and retry the Tower of Babel. But, as I have previously mentioned, I love the condescension of God. It amazes me. And Christmas represents that pivotal moment when Jesus Christ, the only begotten, the creator of worlds handed in His world creating gloves and went from being one of the most powerful beings in the universe to being the most vulnerable, a baby. He used His agency and chose to come to earth, just like the rest of us, and live as we do so that he can save us. He condescended so that we can all become like he was before. Ahh so cool. So really, remember the reason for the season. Remember why we are really celebrating this moment and what it really means. 

Thanks everyone for all the packages and emails! It was so nice of y'all and I love hearing from everyone! 

Love yall! And Merry Christmas!!! 

Sister McKee 

 Tree mom sent with ornaments that my extended family signed and decorated.

 Dallas Temple that I watercolored

Hip Old Grandma

Hey y'all!! Greetings from Louisville!! 

So, I had to say goodbye to my district Tuesday night, which was so sad, and one elder said “Goodbye Sister McKee, you really are a hip grandma!" And I realized that I never told that story to y'all! 

We were on exchanges and I was talking to Sister Larsen and as we were talking I pulled out my crocheting to make Angel's and she looked so surprised and said “What! You crochet? Bu,t you also are like really cool. You're like a hip grandma!" And I told Sister Wind and the district and they all agreed. Good times. I like that title. 

It was so sad to say goodbye to Sister Wind. I cried. It was hard. It was also hard to say goodbye to my wards and the people we're teaching! Wilma kept saying "do you really have to go? Why'd they pick you to take?" It was so sad. I'm gonna miss Arlington, it was so amazing. Probs my favorite area so far. 

 Bobbie

 Wilma

 Packing her stuff up to move to Corinth.

But Louisville, guys. It's super fun. Everyone here is so nice and all the houses are so big!! We are working with less active members and part member families because knocking is not effective. And my companion is Sister Mabila, who is the sweetest! She's been out for 3 months and is so awesome!! She works so hard. 

Her previous companion was actually my 2nd cousin, Sister Wilson, and Sister Mabila said that Sister Wilson told her I'm "wild" hahaha. And I dont know what that means and I clearly told her so while I was standing on the table unscrewing the whiteboard with one hand and wiping the blood off my foot (cause I kicked a chair) with the other. Not so good timing. hahaha. 

 Malena's desk

 The faces mom gets when she sends a snapchat video.

 Malena's face when grandma Munoa sends her flamingos, which she loves.  haha

On Friday Sister Mabila and I went contacting. We went and tracked down a ton of people and invited them to our Christmas concert. We were going to the door of this man who was previously interested in hearing a message when a man stepped out. He said “Hi I'm Ivan, I'm Edwin's brother. I know who y'all are, I was born in Utah, and I know what you're teaching. I've talked to my brother and told him about you and he isn't interested. I'm actually a born again Christian and..." just straight bible bashed us. Now, Sister Mabila had never been bible bashed before so I started correcting him when he said stuff “No, Brigham Young isn't the founder of our church, we don't worship him" "we don't believe Jesus is the son of satan" and all this other junk. I don't even know where people get this. Finally, after a minute I just say "ok thank you, bye!" And we walk away. And he follows us to the car and kept saying all this stuff and we just left. 

So, many of you probably don't know that I love grouting floors. There is a family in the ward that the missionaries have been helping to fix up their house. I told them I like to grout and they got very excited and told me that they believe we are an answer to their prayers and I'm gonna tile AND grout their kitchen. Pray for me. I can't tile on my own. 

We had a family tell us about their return missionary son, and how he still acts like a missionary even though he's been home 5 years. (He studies in his suit an hour every day, goes to bed at 10:30, won't go to pg13 movies, ect.) And then, they told their daughters they're gonna set me up with him. hahaha. They also asked if I know anyone who would be interested, to send them over. It sounds like he needs referrals. Hahaha. Let me know if you are and I can get you his email. 

We had this amazing lesson this week. We went to visit this family and they haven't been active for a long time but they were so welcoming! We came in and had a long conversation and they've recently lost their son and we showed them 'The Mountains to Climb' video. They both started crying and really opened up. The spirit was so strong as they told us that they've had promptings to come to church but don't know why. And we just said "that's the Holy Ghost telling you it's time to come back. You will find peace in the gospel and the church." AND THEY CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY!!! FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS!!!!!! The spirit was so strong and they were so happy to come! Ah, I love this work. I know that we were instruments in the Lords hands. It was time for them to come back and they knew it and we knew it and God knew it. 

I know this church is true. I know the gospel of our church teaches brings us true, everlasting joy. I know that through faith and sincere repentance we can find joy and peace. I love you all 

Sister McKee!! 

Transfers

We got transfers this week!! I'm going to the Louisville/Carrollton zone to cover the three wards: Lancaster, Lake Cities 2 and Highland Village wards. 3 wards again, woohoo. I'm actually super excited!! It'll be so fun! My new companion is Sister Mabila and I've heard so much good stuff about her!! I'm pumped!! I'm excited for a change. It should be fun!! 

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This week was good and bad. We did so much and it was so awesome! Our mission has these huge chalk boards and we reserved one and went to the college football game this weekend at the AT&T Stadium. We took It in front of Texas Live, which is essentially a HUGE multilevel bar. So, everyone going in was really nice. But everyone coming out were a little crazy and really grumpy or excited (depending on who won the game).  I accidentally wore the colors of the team that lost and I got a few very rude comments from some not so gracious winners. But the chalkboard was a success and people loved writing on it! 

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Tuesday night was most likely the worst night of my mission thus far. So, we had 2 Christmas parties, and as we're going to the first one, we realize that there was an inactive member who wanted to come but we didn't find her a ride. So, we are stressing out and calling people in the front yard of hostesses house. And we were sitting outside and a lady walked pasted and said "oh no sisters! How can we help you!" And we told them we are looking for a ride for our member to come and she only lives 2 miles away and this member said "sorry sisters, I can't." And walked inside the party. The epitome of member missionary work there. 

Long story short we ended up crying on the porch of the party for 20 minutes before leaving to our other party. There was a camera on the porch though so we got some very nice text messages the next day. 

The other party was a blast. It was an ornament gift exchange and I brought little ornaments that I crocheted.

Awkward Malena Moment: 

We didn't have any wrapping in the car. And we just had the most stressful day. So, we are going through our car and a member had given us these boxes of healing lotion for dry skin and we were in a hurry so we dumped all the bottles out of the boxes and threw our ornaments in and walked in. We come into this huge party and all the presents are on the table were wrapped very, very beautifully. And we have these ugly boxes. And after like 20 minutes NO ONE HAS EVEN TOUCHED THEM. and we were so embarrassed and we were laugh crying because why would anyone pick them a lotion box!?!?! And if they opened them, who wants pictures of two random sister missionaries!? We were dying. 

Eventually a member picked mine and she is the best and I love her and she was so so excited and then no one picked sister winds and so she took it too and she loved them and her kids told us they love them. So, it made our night a ton better. We just laughed it off.

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We spent two hours putting labels on envelopes and then someone came in and told us it was the wrong list and we have to come back on Tuesday and redo it. 

We went out to dinner one night with some members and my favorite Queen song came on and I jammed out. It was such a tender mercy. The members were a little weirded out that I knew all the words to this song though. 

Hey I love yall! This email is shorter than usual, but I just don't have much to report! 

Sister McKee

Psalms 100

Guys, no one has lived until they have Thanksgiving in Texas. It's so awesome. But I'll get there. Hold your horses. 

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So, this week was so good. And, I'm gonna start with an amazing story for y'all: on Wednesday we went to visit Blaze, the French guy. We told him we want to visit Saturday with some French speaking missionaries. He was having trouble understanding us so we called someone who could help translate over the phone. Blaze talked to him for a little and then our translator said "Blaze doesn't want to come to church, but you are welcome to come on Saturday". We thought maybe if we came, he would like church and want to come so we agreed on Saturday at 11. As we were walking away Blaze invites us inside. We decline and again try to explain we can't because there isn't another woman in the house. Here's how it goes: 

Blaze: I am angry. Everytime I invite you in, you say no. 

Us: We will bring a female so we can come in on Saturday  

Blaze: Wait, come in and cook with me! 

Us: We cant! We are only 19! We dont know how to cook! 

*we start to walk away and Blaze grabs Sister Wind's arm* 

Blaze: I will give you my daughter! My daughter, she needs a mom! I need a wife for my daughter! 

Sister Wind: NOOOOOO!!! 

and Sister Wind starts running away and so I follow her. When we get to the car our translator says "hey, I don't think he's interested..."  

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We went over and tried to meet this referral yet again and she finally let us in! It was so awesome! Her name is Vallerie and her and her family were a member referral and she and her husband seemed really interested! They loved everything we taught them and we showed them the Christ Child video and they kept watching other Mormon Messages after that and really liked it! That video is so powerful. I also brag that my uncle is in it everytime we watch it.  He’s one of the wisemen.  

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Thursday was Thanksgiving and the Spanish missionaries invited us to a volleyball game with their ward. Little did we know it was an actually for real tournament with all the Spanish Wards in the area!  So, it was the 10 missionaries of the stake and two of the sisters were on volleyball in highschool and they kicked us off their team, with their companions!! So, it was all the 6 missionaries on one team and the 4 of us on the B team ( they literally called us that). I had flashbacks to coed team sports.  2 men offered to be on our team and then one left because we were so bad. But, we had so much fun and the other team lost all their games so all is well. We did get a participation trophy though. 

Then, we went to 4 Thanksgiving dinners. I kid you not. Our first I knew would be the best so I ate a ton and it was really good and we drove from that dinner to an investigator's house and picked up dinner, then we called our parents for like 20 minutes and went to another dinner and we were very close to puking in the car so when we got to our last stop we told them we will not eat, but we would love to set up Christmas decorations. They understood. Then, the next day we had another feast at 2 and by then I didn't want to look at another bird or mashed anything but wow, all the food is so good and everyone uses their most fancy stuff and I felt straight out of an old fashioned movie. I loved it. 

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We went to Compo Verde for dinner one night with a family and this place is awesome because its COMPLETELY decked out in Christmas stuff. You can't see a thing. It was so amazing. 

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We went caroling yesterday to old folks homes and it was so much fun!! I took my guitar and we would say hi, jam out as they ate lunch and then leave. It was a lot of fun. They loved it! One lady told us to call her bulldog because she's tough. Music is so powerful. The spirit was so strong as we sang and I loved spreading joy through it. 

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This week a member brought her friend from school to church with her! Her name is Sam and she had so many questions and we were able to teach her for almost an hour and help her understand a lot more! I think teaching good lessons is my favorite part of being a missionary because I can always feel the spirit and I love watching their faces as we talk about the first vision or the plan of salvation. I love testifying and inviting people because they see how special the message we have is.

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This week I have been thinking about hope. Hope confuses me. Hope and faith seem like the same thing. But, I've been studying it and it's starting to make a lot more sense, but if anyone else had insights, send them my way. But, from what I've learned, faith is always in the present tense. We have faith, we use faith, we gain faith right now. But, hope is always in future tense or past tense. We have hope for the future. Hope is crucial because it's a testament that we will keep having faith in the future. Its saying "because I have faith now, I believe things will get better." Hope is being optimistic and joyful because we know things will improve. Hope is Jesus Christ, because if it weren't for Jesus Christ, we would have no way to be forgiven and improve. We would have no hope that things will get better because things wouldn't be able to.

Wow I "hope" that made sense and if it doesn't, my mom will edit it so it sounds better.  (Mom didn’t change anything.;))

I love you all! I love this gospel and Jesus Christ for being my Savior and giving me hope for the future and that I can improve and become more like Him everyday. 

Later gators- 

Sister McKee 

Dallas Temple

Fran sent Malena a package and facemarks:

Malena and Sister Wind had a RS Christmas party and had to bring ornaments to exchange, so Malena crocheted these to take: