A week of MIRACLES

Happy End of August Everyone! This week has been so awesome! It is crazy!

So, we had to say goodbye to Hermana Moorhead on Monday night and we did a goodbye live on our facebook page, it was really fun! Because we were running so late, the elder were able to join and we did a lot of really pretty songs!

Tuesday was so awesome! We went over to Jacob's to have a lesson and we have invited him to get baptized at least 7 times, but he just felt he isn't ready. He has been praying about if he should get baptized and hasn't gotten an answer yet.So, we decided to kneel down outside his apartment and pray with him, and he gave this beautiful prayer and the spirit was so strong, and then we asked him to grab his Book of Mormon and open to a random page and read the first verse he see's. I was really nervous inviting him to do this, but then this thought came to my mind: "Do you not trust the Book of Mormon?" and so we invited him to do it and he opened to 2 Nephi 31:14! it reads: 

14 But, behold, my beloved brethren, thus came the voice of the Son unto me, saying: After ye have repented of your sins, and witnessed unto the Father that ye are willing to keep my commandments, by the baptism of water, and have received the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, and can speak with a new tongue, yea, even with the tongue of angels, and after this should deny me, it would have been better for you that ye had not known me.

 

And we were all BLOWN AWAY! WOW! it was so cool, and after reading that Jacob agreed to be baptized this weekend! The 29th! 

It was so cool, and he is so excited to get baptized! We call him every night and he is so ready!

On Wednesday we went and delivered cards to people who have been taught in the past, and that was fun! But it was Friday and Saturday that were the coolest part of the week!

On Friday we planned our exchanges and went to lunch to exchange with Hermana Arzola and Hermana Johnson. When we were walking out to our Toyota Camry to leave, our back right tire was flat! The car is a rental car, and so none of us wanted to ruin the car so we called the rental company and they sent someone to replace the tire and then we went to exchange the car! It was cheaper and faster to exchange and the lady said "all we have is a minivan... would that be okay?" and we had to say okay, but when we went out to see the car, there was a black Ford F150 next to this ugly minivan, and I asked the lady if we could take that instead and she said "SURE!" so we got to take this huge truck, and wow, I've never felt so cool, and the Elders are all so jealous, because they are driving these tiny cars. so that's been SO FUN! I love driving it. 

Also, while on exchanges the mission office called us and said "Hey, you are moving tomorrow at 3, the Elders need your apartment." We had just moved in 2 weeks earlier! So, we had to hurry and pack, and the mission office had found us A HOUSE! This house is SO NICE! We have 2 rooms, 3 bathrooms, 5 closets, a washer and dryer, and two stories and dang we are living large right now. We were really sad to leave our little duplex though. There was this really ugly cat that we named “Alma the younger before he was converted" and he would sit guard outside our door at night. 

We also had a carwash and it was so fun! This lady came by to get her car wash, and she told us she had had a really hard week, and was so happy to get a free car wash! In fact, she was so happy she came back 2 more times with more cars to get them washed for free too! In total we had 17 cars come and it was a BLAST! 

We went biking to church this week, and it was also so great, I am slow, but i was cruising through town. 

Overall, it was a really great week! I am so excited for Jacob to get baptized on Saturday!! WOO HOO!

I found this really cool scripture in the Bible this week. It is Micah 7:7-8:

7 Therefore, I will look unto the LORD: I will wait for the God of my salvation: My God will hear me.

8 Rejoice not against me, O mine Enemy: when I fall, I shall arise: when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. 

And I loved these! It teaches us so much about our relationship with Jesus Christ! He us our salvation, he hears our cries, he lifts us and is our light! I can promise that as we turn to the Lord, he will lift us in so many ways! I know God loves you and there is true joy that comes from Jesus Christ and knowing he can give us salvation and eternal life! 

Also, If you want to send me a letter or something, I know many of you must have them written out and waiting for my address :)

3611 Word Street, Dallas, Texas 75204

or if you have an email sitting in your drafts and you somehow forgot my email, it is malena.mckee@missionary.org

I love y'all! 

Sis. McKee

Sis. Menlove posted this as one of her top 10 pics as a Missionary.

Mandy had a layover in Dallas and took Malena and Sis. Snoops to lunch.  She got to give her a big hug!!

Zone Conference

Week 62

Hello everyone, writing emails is so fun to do for 18 months, trust me, and I know that it is

 probably even more fun for you to read them. 

This week was pretty exciting! We did the normal of lessons, zoom calls, and just hanging out trying not o feel like failures because we have ALMOST 0 PEOPLE TO TEACH.

Wow, missions are weird, but we also had sooo much fun this week! 

This week we went on double exchanges, back to back. First, I went with Sister Lamb, and she is such a baller and we had so much fun! A homeless man came up to me at the gas station and asked for money but we couldn't give him any, so we gave him a Book of Mormon instead, and he was so excited! He told us he is so excited to grow closer to God! 

Then, I went on exchanges with Hermana Christiansen and we did it Saturday night to Sunday night and on church on Sunday we had 3 people at church!! We were so excited because Geo was there, and also Chubbs and Jacob came! But, Geo and Chubbs were really really happy and Chubbs kept yelling "everyone needs Jesus! If they don't like you, they are denying Jesus and they are sinners!" and Geo was smiling a ton and kept asking us to come over that night for a lesson. Turns out they were high. Like super high. And not high on the gospel like I am,  nope. Then, Chubbs and Geo invited us to come to their work bbq and we were planning on baptizing nations, but it was out of our area, and when we told the zone leaders the situation, they told us to call the APs who also told us to call PRESIDENT. and he told us we cannot go to the party if there is any influences, so we couldn't go.

There was also a huge rainstorm last night. and I was driving Christiansen back to the church and we went down a hill and the water was so high and right when we went down, the other car sprayed us and we were COMPLETELY SUBMERGED. and as I was driving, I remember thinking, "I'm ready to die" and it was very calm so I just closed my eyes for a few seconds and then I felt us go back up the hill and I opened my eyes and we kept driving. 

We had an amazing lesson with Jacob this week and the spirit was so strong as we explained the sealing power of the priesthood. He doesn't want to get baptized again because he didn't see the point,  but as we explianed that it can seal our baptisms to us for all eternity he really liked that! He told us he is getting closer and it is so awesome! We are just trying to get his passion alive for the gospel and we will be set. 

I love you all! I am so grateful for this gospel! As I think about my mission, I can't believe who I'd be without the gospel and the things I know. I am so thankful we can find peace and answers in the scriptures! We can be washed clean through the atonement! I love Jesus!

I love you all!

Sister McKee

Sister “Snoop” reenacting Snoop Dog reading the Book of Mormon

Hola, bienvenido a mi correo electrónico semanal

Hello everyone!

This week was pretty good, but also pretty boring, so i may mix in some lies, and you will have to guess which is truth and which is a falsehood.

On Monday we made a video for the zone page, and you guys should PLEASE PLEASE go like our zone fb page because we need more likes. It's called "Followers of Jesus Christ in Dallas." the Elders are over it, but I do all the background work and it's really cute. Please just like, comment, and share stuff, we need more people.

On Tuesday was District Council and Hna. Moorhead's birthday so she wanted to go to Barnes and Noble for our lunch hour. It was so fun and I really miss books. Trying to talk to people I asked a girl about her books she was holding and I ended up asking her if I could read the back of it and I put it on my list. I definitely miss books, so that was way fun! 

We had a facebook training this week about how to "make your content look so good everyone wants to get baptized!" So watch out because all my pictures are going to follow the rule of thirds and all my captions will have correct punctuation? 

We got dropped 4 times in 24 hours. So, we aren't teaching a lot of people in the first place, and then our 4 people we were most excited about told us they aren't interested, or tried to convert us to the Catholic Church. 

We are still working with Jacob, and it was so cool because he came to church this week!!! He just won't take that leap of faith to get batpzied, but we think he will get closer in the next few weeks!!

Good news: we no longer sleep on the floor! We got moved into our new apartment, and we have beds and we can take our stuff out of our suitcase, and WOW we are so blessed. We live with a different set of sisters, Sister Perkinson and Sister Harris, and they are so fun! It's been good! 

On Friday to Saturday we went on exchanges with Christiansen and Johnson and I went with Sister Christiansen to the Spanish area. I still don't know Spanish. But, I got to bike!! It was the highlight of my week!! I was really nervous, rightly so because wow, Sister C took off so fast and I was like 2 stop lights behind her, just cruisin, but it was SO MUCH FUN!!! Wow I loved it, and I could wave at everyone and I thought people were being nice to me, but a few tried to drive me off this busy road, and one guy tried to get me to stop and give him kisses. But I just yelled at him "No SPANISH” Then, he pulled out AGAIN and tried to get both me and Christiansen to stop and i just yelled at him to go away and we biked away. I loved it. And at the lessons I had 0 idea what was going on, but Sister Christiansen tried to teach me to testify in Spanish, but it didn't go well, and so she just translated for me. haha.

Saturday night, Sister Snoop and I were really sad that we had no people to teach and no one was progressing so we fasted yesterday to find people, and yesterday our good friend Emily brought 3 friends to church, and Jacob came!! it was incredible, and one of Emily's friends had already been taught by us last week and was kinda hesitant, one was uninterested, and had knocked out our other interested guy so he couldn't' come to church, but her friend Jessica was interested and we are going to teach her tonight!! We are so excited! Fasting is real! 

I have been reading in D&C this week and it is so good. I feel like sections 121-128 are perfect pump up chapters. In section 123: 16 it says 

" You know, brethren, that a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves."

HOW COOL IS THAT?? We are the small helm, and as we are pointed in the right direction, we can help turn the ship to where it needs to be! Our actions are not wasted, and our good works are not for nothing, we may not see the results now, but a large ships is benefited by a small helm. BE GOOD, SHARE GOOD, DO GOOD!! 

I LOVE Y'ALL! 

-Sister McKee

Sister Christensen

Happy 14 Months

“Hey, its the sister missionaries!" 

If you didnt hang up or close this email after reading this, you've made it farther than 80% of the people we call.

This week was good! That's the good thing about hitting a low, you can only go up or stay the same and this week went up! 

On Tuesday we had district council, where some elders told us about a "sick referral" they are going to give us, after they go over and bash with them one more time. Then, they want me to go and "mic drop bash them", but we will see if that happens.

We helped a girl move and maybe instead of Awkward Malena Moments, this week we will have an “Overly Dramatic Malena Moment":

She wanted us to take a bag of stuff to the donation center around the corner. It was pouring rain and I was holding it by the handles and taking it to the car. Well, as we were putting stuff in the car, the handle broke and it fell on the ground. This caused some glass dish to shatter in the bag. My comp and I were trying to pick it up when I look down and see my finger is covered in blood, and I had sliced it open on the dish. No stitches or anything needed, I just held an extra sock to it until it dried. But, imagine me kneeling in a parking lot in the pouring rain, with my hand covered in blood, griping with my companion because she wanted to find her first aid kit. It was quite a sight, let me tell ya. 

That night we saw a opossum! Well no, we didn't.

We were sitting outside the church calling people one night and something ran around the church and I said "look at that ugly opossum, I hate possums." And then, we stare at bit longer and realized it's an ARMADILLO!!! So obviously we chased it around the church and it looked so weird running and we went inside to tell the hermana, and when we came back out there were 4!!! 4 armadillos were in this hole under the sidewalk so we had Schmutz jump on the cement and it was dark and we were scared they were gonna attack us so we just left and I look every time we go and we haven't seen them since. Highlight of my week. I tried to take a pic of it.

A man sent me his art on fb, I included it. It's amazing all the cool people i meet out here! 

We had 2 lessons on Wed at 11 and 1 so in between them we went to a sandwich shop and it was in this cool town with all this art so we ate real fast and walked around and looked at all the murals. 

We had a decent lesson with Daniel, who told us even if he knew it was the true church, he probably wouldn't join because God probably wants him to be in the wrong church because he needs to save someone's life. He also reads anti and won't read the Book of Mormon, so that makes it hard. 

We had a really good lesson with Jacob. He is quiet and very thoughtful about everything but told us he has a desire to follow God and he studies the Book of Mormon all the time! He has been struggling with prayer, but prayed for the first time in years this week!! He told us he feels peaceful and warm when he prays! It was awesome! 

Awkward Malena Moment: 

We were on exchanges and the sisters wanted to go on a walk and so I jumped up, but I thought we were just walking around the apt. complex so I didn't grab my lame closed toed shoes. Well, the walk ended up being like a half mile on the asphalt and I decided to tough it out because not wearing shoes eliminates the need for shoes, duh. Texas is flippin hot and it was about 105⁰ on the ground and I had literal heat knives in my feet, and turns out I blistered them a ton. So, that was embarrassing, I felt weak sauce. But, now they are tougher but the sisters yell at me every time I don't wear shoes outside. 

We had MLC this week and I wore my super cool sunflower Van's and we were discussing dress and then I asked if I could wear them and all the mission leaders  had a discussion if my shoes were "professional and attractive" and I told them that if they don't think my shoes are attractive then tell me, but President emailed me and said he likes my shoes and I can keep wearing them and all my other weird shoes, so woohoo! Yay!

Then I was in the bathroom while they were lining up for a picture so I had to run out, try to find me.

 

Sis. Schmults

Geo came to church again yesterday! He said he really likes church and he is pretty solid! We are so excited! He's super cool and he also brought his friend Chubbs, and Chubbs thought we were going to sacrifice someone during sacrament so we had to explain it all a few times. 

I'm so grateful for the gospel! It truly brings joy! 

In the Book of Mormon, when King Lamoni learned about the Gospel it says "that light had infused such joy into his soul."

 ISN'T THAT SO COOL! We can literally infuse joy into our souls through the gospel of Jesus Christ! 

If you do not have joy infused into your soul right now, message me asap.

I love you all!! 

-Sister McKee