"It's like the Mosaic Law of phase 1"

Howdy everybody!

WOW, this week was soo good! So many amazing things happened!

We tried something new with facebook finding. I put out a post on our Christian groups that said "what prayers do you need today?" and got over 400 responses! So, we spent a lot of time texting them, I texted so many Facebook banned me for 24 hours from messaging any more strangers. And then, we set up a ton of 10 minute lessons with people so we could talk to them and pray with them, and then we invited them to take lessons, or watch a video or check out the website! It was super awesome and we found 3 new people for us, and referred a lot too! 

We had one woman today ask us to pray for her future husband and she said " I don't know what country he's in, or what planet he is on, but pray for him and pray that he will find me." It was great. 

It is so sad to see how many people needed prayers for their family and marriage relationships. I am so grateful for the gospel and how it blesses us and our families! We taught many of them how the gospel can bless us and our families, and taught them ways to strengthen their family! 

So, we had our last lesson with Ryan, Vanna, and their kids, and it was so good! We did a facebook messager type pass off lesson with the elders, where we all were on a call and read the Book of Mormon together! It was really fun. So, this family...We have been teaching them for over 6 months now, and I just love them SO much! And, they are working to get to the temple but Ryan has a WOW issue. He just won't quit, he even has said that it's gotten worse, and won't try, even though it means so much to his wife to go to the temple. And so, when we were saying goodbye, it was so sad and he told us to let them know if we need anything, and the spirit just hit me so hard, and I don't remember half of what I said, But essentially it went like this: "I need you to quit smoking, God needs you to quit smoking, you are holding your family back from the blessings of being sealed in the temple and God has given you this family and your wife and you need to quit smoking and get sealed. Show your faith in God and throw out all your cigarettes. It's time." And wow, I shocked myself, and those poor elders were completely schocked, but Vanna just said "Thank you!" and Ryan was holding the phone and said "wow, I can barely hold the phone, my jaw is to the floor." I surprised myself, but it felt so good and I know that's what he needed to hear! They are the cutest family!

Y'all the weirdest thing happened this week. So, we were volunteering with the other sisters at Metrocrest, a food pantry, and we were boxing food. Well my favorite cereal is Frosted Flakes, and so is Sister Wind's, who was behind me. There was a guy there, and he was listening to us and then he said "you don't actually like Frosted Fakes, that's just what you are conditioned to like." and we both said "no... we love them! We used to eat them every day!" and he said "Just because you eat them every day doesn't mean you like them." and then he said, get this: "your captors just force you to eat them, and so you conditioned yourself to like Frosted Flakes" and we told him that we choose what we eat and he just kept telling us we don't actually like them!? We think he thinks we are in some weird frosted flake cult. it was weird. Then sister Emmerson said she loves coco pebbles, and I told her she actually doesn't, she's just conditioned to like them, and she didn't get it either. 

On Thursday we got GREAT news! We got some loosened guidelines!! But, the Dallas/Fort Worth area doesn't yet qualify for total phase 1, so we are in what is called "pre-phase 1". it is basically the Mosaic law of Phase 1. There are certain things that were taken out because we are not yet prepared for them, but we are allowed to hangout with other missionaries as big as a group of 10 and use the church again! It is such a blessing! After 63 days in isolation, now we are only in partial isolation! And now, we can hangout with other missionaries legally, whereas we were all doing it accidentally. 

GREAT NEWS: Tammy agreed to set a baptism date! We were talking about what is holding her back, and she said fear and embarrassment, but as we talked to her about baptism and why it is important, she told us she is okay with setting a goal date! We asked her to pray about a goal date and she prayed with us for the first time! And when she prayed, the spirit hit me like I ran into a wall (I didn't actually, but from experience, I can accurately describe the feeling of running into a wall). As she asked God to know what day she should be baptized, I just felt so full of the sprit! and she agreed on July 11!! It was amazing!!

We also had a not so great baptisimal invitation with Steffi. I thought it had been the spirit but I may have just gotten excited to talk about baptism with her. She didn't bash us, but she just hasn't fully grasped any of the gospel yet, and so she was arguing with us a lot, and it was a long 45 minutes. What really broke my heart was we asked her "if you prayed and came to know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ, really, Would you join." and she said "I don't know, probably not."

I have come to realize that many people don't care about the truth! So many people believe that "as long as we believe in God, we are okay." but 2 things don't work with that.

1. We can't believe in God and not believe in truth. People we talk to don't realize how that works. If we believe in God, we have to believe in the truth he teaches! People are comfortable where they are at, and don't want to change to God's truth, they want to believe in their own truth. We were talking to a member who said before she joined the church she wanted to lead her own world, she called it "beth's world" because it was her life, she could decide how it went and what she believed. But when she joined the church, she realized this is really "God's world" and we can't change truth or bend it to fit what we want, and we find true joy in living in "God's world" and knowing the truths he wants to give us.

2. God is not a lazy God. He didn't just make our milky way, even though that's all we need. God works hard and goes above and beyond. That is what we need to try to do. Believing isn't enough! It never was enough! Action and effort are what we need. We are not set if we "just believe" or "just know Jesus Christ died for us" We need to feel it, show it and live it. The lord loves effort, and wants to bless us as we make effort. 

I hope that made sense!

I also got bit by a dog this week. He literally almost ate my entire right thumb. But I screamed at him and came out alive, barely. 

We got transfer news! I am going to Carrollton! Which is about 20 minutes from here, and in this zone. I'm still kinda shocked. It means I am going to the new mission, The Dallas West Mission.  which is hard for me to grasp at this point, but it's chill. Have a good week! Love yall! 

Also, I love emails, just btw. 

malena.mckee@missionary.org

- Sister McKee

Can you see my angelic look under my face-mask?

Howdy.

This week was soooo long. All week I kept asking my companion, "is it Friday or Saturday?" and she would say "it's Tuesday". It was also really good though! See below:

We got to do more service this week where every day we were packing boxes of food for 2 hours and it was in this cement room and we had our masks and latex gloves on and it was so flippin hot, but it was so fun! Service makes everyone happy. If you are bored or think your life is hard, think of ways to serve, that's probably the best thing you can 

do with your time anyways.

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We had this AMAZING lesson with Tammy this week! We talked about family history and why we have temples and she loved it! She loved that she could get baptized for her great grandma, and then told us that she is seriously leaning towards getting baptized into our church because she knows it's true! I don't know what's holding her back cause she is SO READY, WOW. Sister Elkins told her I am leaving in 2 weeks and she was so sad, and I was so sad and we had a heart to heart, and then she told me that she wouldn't have progressed as much as she had if I hadn't been here and it was so sweet. I know I am supposed to be here for Tammy. I am so excited for her! 

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We taught keeping the Sabbath Day Holy with "Sundaes" and it was really cute, although my ice cream bowl was the one with the cracked egg and mayo in it, so I didn't eat any. The kids liked the idea though.

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We referred a lot of our facebook people this week, and also got dropped a few times this week. 

There was a man named Brad, who referred himself. We called him, and a man named Brandon answered and told us the person we are looking for is actually named Blake. It was confusing and none of them were actually interested.

A man named Tony also referred himself for a Book of Mormon, but that was only to ridicule us. So, that was lame.

Jasmine dropped us, but only because she believes everything we believe but doesn't want to get confused. So, that was sad, and confusing itself, but we sent her to the Missouri sisters so hopefully they will keep an eye on her :).

We had two lessons with Patricia this week. The first we invited some sister missionaries for a pass-off lesson, but turns out we invited the wrong missionaries. It went really good anyways.

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Then, we had another lesson with the Elders that are really in her area and it went so good! Although one elder was really nervous and called her Nancy and I couldn't stop laughing, but of course in a nice way. #awkwardmalena-byrelation-moment.

It was so amazing as we taught Patricia because as we taught and testified I felt the spirit so strong! As I bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon and Plan of Salvation I could feel the power going through me. It's true, I promise. We are sad we had to refer Patricia though, because she's so awesome, but it'd be hard to get her to come to church, because she's 3 states away, and church is closed, but that's another story.

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Update on Covid: No updates. To quote 2 nephi 2:22 

And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.

Meaning, all things are remaining the same for the time being.

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We saw Paul again!! It's a man in our apartment complex who we keep running into, and we were chillin in our apartment one day and decided to go see if we could find him! As we were "walking to get the mail" he was sitting outside! It was such a miracle and we "happened to have" a pamphlet on us, so we gave it to him and he told us he wants to cook us dinner and talk about it one day! So, that's cool! We will take someone with us, don't worry.

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Only some slightly Awkward Malena Moments: 

Sunday morning in a wards Sunday School lesson I was talking about how members can be missionaries even without a tag, and as I gestured to my tag, I wasn't even wearing mine, and then I forgot and during the ward council 2 hours later, a man in the ward who likes to make fun of me called me out and said "No judgement here Sister McKee, but I see you aren't wearing your tag..." and everyone laughed at me. And then he made fun of how I said Herb and said I must be Irish. So, this ward thinks i'm crazy, but that's fine.

I JUST REMEMBERED THE AWKWARDEST THING THAT'S HAPPENED TO ME ALL MILLENIA:

So, many of you may remember the elder who called me pretty a few months ago by comparing me to an actress in a church movie (who was blonde and blue eyed???). Well he got transferred this week, and before service we all met up to say goodbye and I hadn't even seen him since that weird previous encounter.  I knew he was gonna say goodbye so I tried to avoid it by going over to throw stuff away in the dumpster, but I didn't stall enough. As I walked back he came over to me and stuck out his hand for a high five, and as I high fived him, he shook my hand, but it was one of those weird ones where one person doesn't let go after a normal handshake time and I instictively pulled away and walked away and it was so weird . Sister Elkins heard him whisper "that was awkward" as I walked away. I can't make these things up! 

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Sister Elkins had a great idea for a video with all the missionaries in the zone doing the whipped cream challange. Well, I'll send the video of us all doing it... and then a picture so you can see what happened. 

I love you all! I'm sorry if my weekly's have gotten boring, if you've made it this far, email me and I'll send you a painting. I've done such promotions previously, so hopefully someone will want a cute painting of Jesus. or a painting of me, we will see

LOVE,

Sister Mckee

Texas Fort Worth Mission

I will know if I'm leaving the mission next week to go to a new mission so watch out! I could be going To Dallas, or Austin. We will see. Only the Lord knows. 

 Lunch with the STL's.  Flew kites in the park and went to Bucky's.

Malena, Sis. Wind, Elkins, Jager

"49 days!? That is almost 50!"

Hello everyone!

Fun fact: I got one of those bluetooth keyboards at Walmart last week, so either my weekly is gonna be a lot longer, or have many more spelling errrors :). 

This week was good! On Tuesday all the missionaries in the zone were gonna get takeout and go eat together somewhere, but we learned that the place we were going to was open for dine in, so we all got to dine in, for Cinco de Mayo! 

It was way fun! 

Also, on Tuesday we had a lesson with a woman named Jennifer. Jennifer lives in Oklahoma and she had posted on a woman page that she doesn't know her purpose in life and is lost. So, Sister Elkins offered to do a lesson with her. When we called she told us how she had packed up all her things in her car and drives around everyday looking for an apartment because she doesnt want to live in her home anymore. But, she can't find one and is just major depressed. As we talked to her and shared scriptures the spirit was so strong and she started to cry as we talked about God's purpose and love for her! We mentioned the Book of Mormon and she said she doesn't want to get into any "Jehovah Witness stuff" ??? but loved the verses we shared and agreed to meet with us again! Then, she blew us off for our second lesson on Thursday, but its okay, I know God has a plan for her! 

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening we had a Book of Mormon read with Steffi, who's SO AWESOME! She was coming from work, so she downloaded a pdf of the book of mormon and printed out the part we are gonna read so that she could read with us! We just finished the testimonies and she really liked them! Pray for her. 

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On Thursday we went and did service with our whole zone and it was soooo fun! We were helping distribute food and so one of my jobs was waving at people (I was so good at this one, let me tell you), but then they took me off this job and I had to put papers on clipboards for 2 hours, and that was also good. Sister Wind and I were working on our people skills with the elders, and lets say, we are both a little rusty from not talking to people in 2 months. hahah. BUT, It felt so good to be outside (the Latex gloves we had to wear were NASTY) but, I got this great sunburn on half of my neck and my earlobe. It was so fun!

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We made sign ups for 2 of our wards to do spiritual thoughts in the evenings, and one of them hasn't signed up at all, but the other one signed up so fast and it's been awesome!  One family though, their kid was being rowdy and peed in his closet in the middle of our lesson, and climbed on the dryer, and shot us through the camera with his nerf gun, it was so funny. I'm so excited for that stage in my life....

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We had interviews with President this week and he told me I'll be leaving this area but doesn't know which of the three missions I'll be going to. The area I'm in now is going to the Dallas West, I'm serving in the Fort Worth mission, and they are also taking the south of my mission to be the Austin mission, so there are many possibilities. 

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On Saturday evening we met with all the sisters in the zone at the church and ate dinner together! It was so fun. Here's a cool part though: I had accidentally told them the wrong church, so we only had to drive like 5 miles, but the other sisters had to drive like 15. But, as we were eating a man pulled up to empty his truck in the dumpster and as he got out of his truck he yelled "Hurrah for Israel!' and we all yelled back, and then he came and told us his super cool conversion story and was so happy to tell us, and I think that is why we went to that church, because it all worked out so perfectly.

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We shared a spiritual thought with a family and they had 2 little boys (6 and 4) and they had just watched Star Wars for the first time, so I thought I was prepared and related the gospel to Star Wars. It was going great, and I talked all about how the force is like the priesthood and Darth Vader is Satan (even though he gets redeemed in the 6th one) and it was like 10 minutes and going good. BUT, then the boys were starting to get ansty and their dad said "we signed up for a 30 minute lesson, they have a lot more prepared" (WE DID NOT HAVE A LOT MORE PREPARED.) I know kids, and I know their attention span and I had just made that all up off the top of my head so if they listened for 10-15 minutes that was pretty good! And, Sister Elkins doesn't know much about Star Wars. So, the rest of the lesson was kind of a wreck because I was just taking about whatever came into my head, and it wasn't related to Star Wars at all. One of the little boys did teach me that there are two Ammons in the Book of Mormon. Who knew? 

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This weekly is quite boring, if you made it to the end hoping to get an Awkward Malena Moment or anything, I hate to break it to you, I am no longer awkward. I'm all cool. 

Ok, so I listened to the coolest devotional ever. A missionary on facebook had shared it with me, it is about the dead sea scrolls and wow. It was sooo cool. It talked all about how they were found and how they are being translated and how much they actually relate to the gospel and I was literally blown away while listening to it. It really strengthened my testimony on the gospel and so if any of you would like to listen to it, I'll share it with you so we can talk about it. Or if you don't believe in it, we can just talk about other stuff. 

In Isaiah 41:10 it says "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness," and I have loved this verse a lot of my life because of how much God is willing to help us! He's with us, he will strengthen us, he will up hold us! He is there to help us through hard times!

Love Y'all!

-Sister McKee.

Birthday Poster from the other sisters for my birthday.

 11 months

 Getting ready for our Holy Ghost Video, Sister Elkins

 Great P-Day....With Sis. Wind, Jager, and Elkins

Went to Bucky's, Got lunch, Visited with Sis. Coffman who gave us tour of her house, and closet, 

and a gave us a ride in her Lotus. 

Mother's Day

"I hear they are opening on Friday"

So this week was pretty good! That subject line is the most spoken sentence I heard all week! Texas did open their phase one, but more on that in a second.

On Tuesday we had zone conference and president told us that because our zone is going to the new mission when we split, they are going to pump it full of missionaries! And right now we have about 160 missionaries in our mission, we lost 80 with the circumstances, but we will gain 120 in the next month, which means 2 sets of missionaries per ward! We are excited to see what they do! We got to see a few of them last night on a zoom call and that was cool! Its gonna be so cool! 

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Then, that afternoon we took our sidewalk chalk and went and chalked peoples driveways! It was way fun! We did it again and the family caught us, and I think they were so excited for human interaction beyond their family, that they set up lawn chairs on their sidewalk and they sat at the top of their driveway and we drank smoothies and talked! It was fun! 

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Just a fun update, our mission president informed us on Tuesday that he is hoping to let us out with phase one opening. We were all really excited, especially since we haven't left the apartment in 45 days, and we are getting more missionaries, but president told us last night that he recieved word from the first presidency that it's not the time yet. We will not be allowed to start going out again until there has been a downward trend for two weeks, and in Texas, it is still rising. So, we've got at least two more weeks, if it starts dropping today. So, that was a bummer, but it makes sense. 

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So, a few months ago the housing coordinator called and asked how our Apt. Is and if we'd like to move. We were telling him some stuff going on so he called the front office and then told us we will move the end of April. This was way before corona or anything so Sister Elkins and I called about 3 weeks ago and asked if we were still moving, and the housing guy said "no". Which was fine, but then, on Wednesday the new housing guy calls us and said "hey, front office called us, you are still moving TOMORROW right? They're planning on that.” So, that was crazy. We had two sisters come help us pack all day and then we woke up and starting scrubbing the apartment on Thursday. Wow it was so gross. Missionaries had been living in that apartment for 6-7 years and I don't think anyone ever washed the baseboards. 

Then, more missionaries came and helped us move across the complex and our new apartment is the exact same, just cleaner and we enjoy it! It was a crazy 48 hours though, but gave us something fun to do! 

We found so much random stuff in there such as: 

- a child's fishing pole with a jig and hook on it 

- an entire box of old candy canes 

-alcohol (for cleaning we assume :)) 

- a super, super old area book 

- food that expired in 2008

- church themed Jenga 

- a 1/10 carot diamond watch 

- many shower curtains 

Like what even? It was good we moved to get a fresh start. Some stuff never gets thrown away. I heard the line "we will keep in incase the next missionaries want it" like 100 times. Nope. It's gone.

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A woman asked for a Bible study and so we called and she introduced her husband to us! They asked what message we share and so we taught the restoration! They got so excited! They wanted to know everything and told us they lead a church in Pakistan, but want to create a branch of our church in their town, and they already have 300 church members! So, we found the Pakistan missionaries! I didn't know there were any and it's so awesome! I'm so excited for them! 

We also had a really good lesson with Steffi and read the intro to the Book of Mormon with her and she loved it! We are going to start calling 3 times a week to read with her! 

We taught a woman named Patricia last night in Missouri. As we taught the plan of salvation she kept telling us how it makes sense and how she feels like her eyes are opened! The spirit was so strong and none of us noticed it had been an hour and a half! At one point she said "so this Joseph guy, is he an image?" And I laughed outloud and said "no no, we don't worship him at all!" And she let out this huge sigh and said "good, because I've been praying to God about this, and I felt awkward praying about if I should worship someone else!" It was funny. 

And she actually loved the fact that our  church believes in spirits and that we believe we will see our pets in heaven. She told us her  church doesn't believe either of those things but they are important to her. Patricia is amazing!! 

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So yesterday was my birthday, and of course my birthday would go this way:

It was actually pretty great! Thank you for all the happy birthday emails!! Ya'll are the best! 

In the afternoon we decided to go for a drive. Our car had been informing us that the tires psi was low for weeks now, but when we go to fill it, it's full. Well all the sudden our tire says "0 psi" and we are in the middle of a highway. So, we pull off and literally our tire looks like silly putty. Well, I'm only 20, what do I do? My only knowledge is to try and fill it! So, we slowly drive to a gas station with an air pump, but of course, it's out of order. So, we call the elders to come help us, and while we are standing there discussing our joint knowledge about putting on a spare tire, which I haven't even thought about doing since I was 15, a super nice man walks over and offers to help! He replaces the tire for us, which was great, because I couldn't even figure out the jack, and we drive to an auto shop. Sadly they are way too busy for us and so we are getting it fixed today. My grandpa Munoa (and probably the rest of my family) will be so ashamed. But, I could replace a tire now if I needed! Or, I know the nice guy to call and replace it for us! 

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Since I've been on my mission, I was going through a hard time and during interviews with president  he gave me a blessing. In this blessing he promised me that the trials I an going through will bless my future family and those around me. Knowing that my trials will bless my current and future family was a big comfort to me, and let me know that God sees the big picture. Just like then, the trials that we are all going through right now, will bless future generations! Staying in isolation, going home early, being locked inside with your family for 40+ days and 40+ nights, if we get through these and see the blessings, we can use these to bless our families. These experiences may be hard, but there are lessons we need to learn that couldn't be learned any other way. If we have a hard companion, someday our children might struggle getting along with people, and we will be able to relate and offer advice. If you came home early, some day you might have a friend who goes through something similar, and you will be able to succor to their needs. Blessings come because of trials, and inspite of trials. Look for them. 

I love you all! 

-Sister McKee