God is a Crockpot God!

Howdy y'all! I have many great things to report this week! Many good stories and a few awkward moments. Stay tuned. Possibly some good pictures. Really, I might be hyping it up too much just slightly, but this may be the best thing you read today. 

So, Monday night we had music Monday, and it went grand. Tune in, please! We do it for the people! And, would love for you to see us awkwardly sing church hymns at our camera. We are thinking of ways to make it cooler. I might throw knives and Elkins can juggle. Or, we will throw in the kalimba. We will see. 

▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

We had this awesome lesson with a man named Keith! He referred himself and was so sweet, so we called and had a Bible study and restoration lesson with him! He told us he was ready to jump all in with the gospel and wanted to read the Book of Mormon and when we asked him to pray he said he was gonna pray as soon as we hang up and then texted us saying he is really excited and feels really good about what we teach him! He's amazing! 

We had a really good discussion with a woman named Judy, who messaged us before asking if we were Mormons. We told her "yes ma'am I am" and she said we could have a study if we read the same Bible and we had an awesome discussion with her! She loved it so much and got a more clear ideas of the church and really wants to do another!  

▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

Jasmine is another Bible study and last week we'd talked about what we believe and she told us she's been researching and praying and we were able to share the restoration with her and it went pretty well! She is so sweet! She was telling us her thoughts on personal revelation and she said the most profound statement I've ever heard. She said "what I've learned is God is not a microwave God. We can't put a prayer in the microwave and automatically get an answer. He's like a crockpot God, slowly preparing and adding more and more." Amazing woman right there.

We also got dropped and blocked like 40 times, but why focus on that? 

▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

I also somehow got a sunburn while staying inside all day, what even is life at this point? 

▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

So, on Saturday and Sunday we had member lessons so we decided to try something fun. We made a pb&j sandwich and related it to the gospel of Jesus Christ, except, Sister Elkins was my arms making it. I have not cried from laughing in a long time, but I had mascara running down my face during both lessons it was so funny! The members were all crying, too. 

So, here's an awkward moment for y'all. I don't know if the amount of awkward that was in this situation will be transferable, but I'll do my best. So, we had done the PB&J analogy with the Brown family, and I was wearing my PINK bandana in my hair. Well this family thought I was in a gang because it looked RED. So, they made a gang joke and then I had jelly all over my arms so I was stand there with my arms in the air. As I sat down and put my hands up, the husband casually says “oh, now your flashing me" and my dress had a lot of  buttons so obviously I'd think "oh dang it" and started checking all the buttons and he freaked out for making a mistake. He explained it that he meant that my hands were in the shape of a gang sign (???)  Wow, it was awkward and so funny and the whole family was crying from laughing and and I was crying for many reasons. Haha jk. It was great. I love them.

▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

One day for our break we went to this river side walking trail. And it had been a long day, and I was bored on this trail and wanted to loop around so I took a short cut. And Sister Elkins was not happy with me as I led her through waist high grass fields of nothing, many, many spiderwebs, thorns, trees, bugs, and just about any thing else out here because I somehow thought we'd crossed this huge river without ever getting our toes wet and thought it'd loop around. After about a mile I looked on the map, and we were about a mile off. Picture included. My comp wasnt super happy... but when we turned around we found a trail that we'd been walking close to the whole time and it took 1/3 of the time, was a lot easier and I didn't get any more spiderwebs in my eyelashes. If you think about it, there is probably a gospel lesson there, email me any thoughts you have. 

▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

So, I told you about my crazy ward mission leader who holds my entire future in my hands. Well, he called again, and this is how he started "hi sisters, I'm really excited to tell you what I have to share. Because what I have to tell you is the "secret sauce that will make you MAGNETIC!" and wow. Basically he tore us down for 30 minutes and taught us how to talk about other people, quit talking about ourselves so much, and then told us our voicemail is boring (apparently he got paid $42,000 for his voicemail) and hung up. This man is going to help catch me a husband, I swear.  He wanted to schedule another lesson but we told him we will check our schedule. 

▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

I love you. 

Bye,

Sista McKee 

I had my first missionary discussion!

Y'all, this week was quite the adventure in isolation.

So, I am on day 31 of self isolation. It's been a crazy month. And, we were told this will probably go until May or into the middle of May. So, that is really exciting. I love that.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

A member brought us Torchy's one night (Mexican restaurant),and we had a ton of gifts from members of the ward, and also decorated our door and it was so cute and wow, the Lantana ward is great. 

We taught 16 lessons this week which was so cool! A lot of Bible studies on growing closer to God and we'd read John 14-17 and then say "hey have you heard of this book?? It can help you grow closer to God...! :)" Boom we found 4 new people this way!

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆  

2 are from South Africa and they are so cute! We could not figure out how to pronounce one of their names (Ngyue) and we asked her when we called and she said "oh that's not my real name, I just made that up! My real name is Faith!" So funny! And the other lady accidentally turned her camera around so we were staring at the floor the whole time and called us back later saying "my children told me you cannot see me! I made a mistake! Can you see me now??" But both of them want to learn about the Book of Mormon! What a blessing technology is because there aren't a lot of missionaries in South Africa and they wouldn't have been reached if we hadn't reached them! 

Another woman lives in St. Lucia in the Caribbean and she has been taught in the past! Actually all 4 people we are teaching and someone else we referred, had all had run ins with missionaries in the past! It's so awesome! 

The fourth is a woman named Patricia from Missouri and she is so cute! But an awkward Malena moment for y'all, we were cooking dinner while on the phone with her and I went to pull it out of the oven and the fire alarm went off! So I'm waving a towel at the fire alarm as Sister Elkins is talking to her. Haha.

We also met Jade, who is a member in England, and really struggling right now. She happened to see our music Monday live (tune in btw, 7 o'clock pm Monday nights, Utah time) and reached out. We were able to talk to her and set up a time to call and read the Book of Mormon. She told us she's been going through a hard time and hasn't felt the spirit in 4 weeks. We decided to read Alma 32 about faith with her and it went okay, but then she went live on her Facebook about Alma 32 and another struggling friend saw it and because Jade had talked about faith, her friend told her she needs help and Jade helped her out. Jade then messaged us and told is she'd felt the spirit during her live stronger than ever and her faith is back! It was so exciting! I loved seeing how God works in small ways and was able to help both Jade and Jade's friend!! 

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

We tried to get out more and went on some fun nature walks this week. We found a cool trail to a cemetery and a cool trail to a baseball field and a cool trail to a lake (I think that one was just a park). But, it's a good way to start the day, and we aren't dying inside all day! 

I had the best day of the month on Friday. We went to the chiropractor, and it felt so good and I loved it, and then we went to In and Out, because its not in our area so we had to while we were close, and then on the way home we went to Buckees (Big Texas Gas Station) and got t shirts as a 1 month boost! Woohoo! 

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Ok, yall better be ready for the highlight of my week. Probably the funniest thing ever. Although I think my humor levels have deteriorated since self isolation: 

So, Sister Elkins had put out an offer on a Christian page for a Bible study and we got over 300 responses! It's so wonderful, and we had to get help from other missionaries in teaching them and it's so cool! 

But, one woman(Veronica) responded so we reached out and she said she’d like a Bible study, and her friend will join. Well, Sister Elkins was worried that she was establishing dominance because in the messages, Veronica was planning the time and topic and even messaged to confirm, so of course we had studied the topic and discussed how we were going to go about it and lead the conversation.

Well, we get on and her friend is named Danny, and she starts our Bible study by introducing herself, telling a bit about her and asking Veronica to do the same and each of us. Turns out, we had somehow gotten signed up to do the Bible discussions FOR ANOTHER CHURCH! and Danny was taking us through the Bible and asking questions and it was so funny! I don't think she liked us much though because we knew the answers to her questions and we interpreted them differently. She asked us how we would rate our relationships with God on 1-10 and we both said 9 or 10 (and explained how have literally devoted 18 months of our life to God) and she didn't know what to do, she just moved on. She also asked us if we read the Bible every day and when we said yes, she just committed us to do it anyways. It was so awesome. We even were fellowshipped with Veronica. I was cracking up, and at one point I just started asking my own questions and sharing my own Book of Mormon verses until Danny stopped us. It was really interesting though, and I think Veronica has serious potential and we could help her, so we are going to reach out. Haha! I was chatting with Veronica about humility at one point and shared some scriptures and it was really good! We are also going to steal some of her study tactics! I liked it, but we told them no when they asked if we'd like to continue. Basically, we are the worst investigators.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Our new ward mission leader is a very interesting man and called us and said we don't need to do a correlation because there is no work, but he wants to train us on how to use body language to change our lives. He called us yesterday and drilled us on our personalities and said "he is going to tear us down to rebuild us" so we can get 27 baptisms in 6 months. Total clickbait. He said that what he is going to teach us will change how we do missionary work, future job interviews and will help us get more dates in the future. So basically, this man holds my whole life in his hands. Stay tuned.

 We had this amazing devotional this week! The speaker said something very profound to me, (well he didnt say it just to me, I found it profound). He said "we are not based on the Bible, and we are not based on the Book of Mormon, we are based on what they are based on, which is revelation from prophets." Then he said "the true church can't be based on the Bible, because in the Bible the true church was based on revelation from prophets". And wow. I don't know if y'all have ever thought of that before, but it just hit me! We pray to know that the Book of Mormon is true so we know Joseph Smith is a prophet, so we know the true church is on the earth! That's why we have the Book of Mormon! I'm literally so in awe. I hope that made sense.

I love you all! Stay safe in quarantine! 

-Sister McKee

Amber and Malena were able to do a zoom teaching with Maia.  

 Mom asked if she was good?  This is the picture I got.

 Sis. Wind and Malena 

 Got the package of TP mom sent.

On the plus side, it's been 26 days of no shoes!

Hello fellow covid prisoners. 

There is not much new to report this week, it's been kind of a slower 7 days. A lot of lessons cancelled, so we tried to do more facebook finding or we would constantly be asking ourselves "how can we be productive for the next 45 minutes". I have been banned from a lot of Christian Women pages because I post about Jesus. It's funny. I joined another one and a man sent me weird stuff. Life is good. 

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

We had a lesson with a Bible study request and I think the scariest part is how to introduce the Book of Mormon without scaring them off. 

Her name was Steffi and she is from India and so sweet! We have been having lessons for a few weeks and finally we asked her if she's ever heard of the Book of Mormon. She was raised Pentecostal, who believe in just the bible, so we were nervous but she said she actually tried buying one once on Amazon but it was too expensive, but she wants to read it someday!!! We told her we will come drop one off at her apartment and she has been reading and really likes it! 

We also asked Mindy, another Bible study request if she knows about the BOM and she is a Southern Baptist, so I was nervous, but she said she has but doesn't know what it is and when we explained it, she said "ok, makes sense" and liked the verses we shared! 

I'm not scared about sharing the Book of Mormon, obviously it's like super cool and true or I wouldn't be staying in Texas during all this mess, but we just want to ease into it correctly. And, they were the only 2 who haven't been scared off, we got blocked a lot this week. hahahaha. 

We also had a lesson with Jasmine from Missouri and that was great. We did a Bible study and she loved it and told us she is looking to learn more about her purpose. We asked her if she has ever had the questions "why am I here, where did I come from and where am I going" and she said yes, and we are going to talk about those this week!

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

We also had a lesson with the Van Wagoners and they agreed to pray about getting married and going to the temple!! Woot woot! 

That's about it. 

This week I've been thinking a lot about unconditional love. It's crazy to think that God loves us no matter what. Despite all our flaws, bad days, and mistakes, that love's still there. We had a discussion with a member who told us when she wasnt coming to church, it amazed her that God still loved her as much as he loved the prophet, or her family who was going to church. She said that she felt that love a lot stronger when she came back, but knew it was always there. 

It confuses me, but I'm working on it. This week I've been thinking a lot of my flaws, weaknesses and complete sky high imperfections. That scripture where the people realized they were "less than the dust of the earth" (Mosiah 5:3 I think, I'm just guessing) has been running through my head this week. It's crazy to think that there is still someone out there who loves us an infinite amount despite all this. I'll keep working on this, and will complete this thought next week. If you have any thoughts on the unconditional love of God, feel free to send them over. I'm trying to study it. 

Yesterday was Easter and this week I loved reading the scriptural accounts of Holy Week. I love reading the Bible so i was so excited to share the scriptures in Matthew 26-28 about Jesus Christ's ultimate sacrifice. Those are so special. I was talking to a member on the phone last night and she pointed out that without all the Easter egg hunts and commercialized Easter events, people have had more time to focus on the real meaning of Easter and the effects will have a spiritual side effect for a long time! 

I love you all! 

-Sister McKee 

Pictures: 

Blue Bonnets! I was so excited we drove all around town looking at them!!

Some crosses we found and it was so spiritual and beautiful 

Our last district council 

The elders made us shirts. Mine has a whale on it. But don't worry, they dropped them from the balcony, then we took pictures from 6 feet apart.

Masks