Sister Malena 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