Mi familia!
Oh, how I miss you all you so much.(:
This week has been amazing, like usual, but I am continuing to grow so much as a person and a missionary, and in Spanish.
So many things to write about! I'll start off with last Friday! I'll do my week in chronological order. Friday was probably one of the hardest days so far because it was the day after P-day when I get to write home (obviously). I have it to where Kylie can text my email, so we go back and forth for a couple hours on Thursday, which is amazing. (: Friday was a pretty long day and it lagged on because we didn't really have anything to look forward to.
We have Devotionals and movies on Sundays, Devotionals on Tuesdays, P-day on Thursdays, and nothing on the other days except for lots of study time! So Fridays we have nothing to look forward to on Saturday. We have been teaching a lot of lessons in all Spanish to other missionaries and teachers who act like investigators.
But then on Friday something amazing happened. I was struggling a little bit with thinking about home, and just memorizing some things in Spanish, and I was just having a little bit of a hard time, so I sat down on a bench and just prayed my heart out more than I ever have in my life! I prayed for about thirty minutes, and my companion thought I was sleeping afterwards. But I just poured my heart out, and prayed for everyone individually and for me to have strength and happiness and reassurance that what I am doing is right. I prayed about everything on my mind, and everything I could possibly think of.
I then sat and pondered for about ten minutes, and it was probably the most peaceful, yet exhausting ten minutes of my life. I felt the Spirit of the Lord so strongly that I was almost in tears. It was amazing because it wasn't just one little feeling like I've had my whole life. It was ten whole minutes of strong burning in my heart, and tingling down my back that reassured me that I am doing the right thing and that everything will be just fine!
I then prayed for the Gift of Tongues with more sincerity than I have ever before. After my whole experience, I just focussed and memorized a pretty long Spanish scripture: The first vision as I mentioned in my last email or Blog. I memorized it faster than I ever could've before. It was amazing, and I can't really even explain what happened that night. The wind was mellow, and the air was cool. I sat in the middle of the grassy knoll and prayed my heart out with sincerity, a broken heart, and a contrite spirit. I never knew what that meant before I actually did it.
What a powerful experience to know that our Savior, Jesus Christ is our Redeemer, and our Brother. What a powerful experience to see God's hand in my life more than I ever had before. And what an experience to truly feel the the Holy Spirit (Espirtu Santo) as a Comforter and a messenger to relay information from our Heavenly Father. For anyone who is reading this, I Challenge to to set aside ten, twenty or even thirty minutes to get down on your knees, and plead with God, all your troubles, thoughts, needs, and especially your gratitude for Him.
Without Jesus Christ's Atonement, we would have no chance to live with our Father in Heaven again. God needs to know our thoughts, and our needs, and we need to express our gratitude to Him because he has given us all our knowledge, our worldly items, our families, our blessings, and everything in our lives is because of the grace of God.
We are His children and He loves us, but we can't go through life without having a relationship with Him. The best way to increase your relationship with God, is to put your knees to work. Treat him like a good friend or your father, and talk to Him like He is right there in front of you. The things we can obtain from having an awesome relationship with God are promised to us with more than we could ever imagine or handle. He is the reason we have anything and everything, so tell Him thanks and tell Him about your life. Through the Holy Spirit as our messenger, and through Jesus Christ -- all good things can be accomplished. Choose ye this day whom you will serve, because if you are not with God, then you are against him.
I just want everyone to be happy and experience the happiness I have had in my life. I am giving up everything I have: my hobbies, my talents, my girlfriend, my family, and even myself to serve the Lord for two years and share my happiness with others to invite them to come unto Christ. The Lord is planning on coming back soon. I can feel it. There is a reason that I am part of the Church's task force to go out and to share the Fullness of the Gospel with everyone. I am part of a fleet that will never be so high in numbers. I am on the front line of the battle with Satan to bring to truth to all those who need it. There is a reason why missionary work is so strong right now. I'm not sure of it, but I will let you know the reasons when I find out. With over 90,000 missionaries to soon be out, and the rate of Temples being built are higher than ever. I know that Jesus Christ himself is almost ready to come again. They cut off the Peru MTC and the Provo MTC because there was not enough room there. So if you are not ready, get ready. If you are not clean, get clean. Let's join forces to overcome the devil and allow the war to be won by the Saints again!
We have Devotionals and movies on Sundays, Devotionals on Tuesdays, P-day on Thursdays, and nothing on the other days except for lots of study time! So Fridays we have nothing to look forward to on Saturday. We have been teaching a lot of lessons in all Spanish to other missionaries and teachers who act like investigators.
But then on Friday something amazing happened. I was struggling a little bit with thinking about home, and just memorizing some things in Spanish, and I was just having a little bit of a hard time, so I sat down on a bench and just prayed my heart out more than I ever have in my life! I prayed for about thirty minutes, and my companion thought I was sleeping afterwards. But I just poured my heart out, and prayed for everyone individually and for me to have strength and happiness and reassurance that what I am doing is right. I prayed about everything on my mind, and everything I could possibly think of.
I then sat and pondered for about ten minutes, and it was probably the most peaceful, yet exhausting ten minutes of my life. I felt the Spirit of the Lord so strongly that I was almost in tears. It was amazing because it wasn't just one little feeling like I've had my whole life. It was ten whole minutes of strong burning in my heart, and tingling down my back that reassured me that I am doing the right thing and that everything will be just fine!
I then prayed for the Gift of Tongues with more sincerity than I have ever before. After my whole experience, I just focussed and memorized a pretty long Spanish scripture: The first vision as I mentioned in my last email or Blog. I memorized it faster than I ever could've before. It was amazing, and I can't really even explain what happened that night. The wind was mellow, and the air was cool. I sat in the middle of the grassy knoll and prayed my heart out with sincerity, a broken heart, and a contrite spirit. I never knew what that meant before I actually did it.
What a powerful experience to know that our Savior, Jesus Christ is our Redeemer, and our Brother. What a powerful experience to see God's hand in my life more than I ever had before. And what an experience to truly feel the the Holy Spirit (Espirtu Santo) as a Comforter and a messenger to relay information from our Heavenly Father. For anyone who is reading this, I Challenge to to set aside ten, twenty or even thirty minutes to get down on your knees, and plead with God, all your troubles, thoughts, needs, and especially your gratitude for Him.
Without Jesus Christ's Atonement, we would have no chance to live with our Father in Heaven again. God needs to know our thoughts, and our needs, and we need to express our gratitude to Him because he has given us all our knowledge, our worldly items, our families, our blessings, and everything in our lives is because of the grace of God.
We are His children and He loves us, but we can't go through life without having a relationship with Him. The best way to increase your relationship with God, is to put your knees to work. Treat him like a good friend or your father, and talk to Him like He is right there in front of you. The things we can obtain from having an awesome relationship with God are promised to us with more than we could ever imagine or handle. He is the reason we have anything and everything, so tell Him thanks and tell Him about your life. Through the Holy Spirit as our messenger, and through Jesus Christ -- all good things can be accomplished. Choose ye this day whom you will serve, because if you are not with God, then you are against him.
I just want everyone to be happy and experience the happiness I have had in my life. I am giving up everything I have: my hobbies, my talents, my girlfriend, my family, and even myself to serve the Lord for two years and share my happiness with others to invite them to come unto Christ. The Lord is planning on coming back soon. I can feel it. There is a reason that I am part of the Church's task force to go out and to share the Fullness of the Gospel with everyone. I am part of a fleet that will never be so high in numbers. I am on the front line of the battle with Satan to bring to truth to all those who need it. There is a reason why missionary work is so strong right now. I'm not sure of it, but I will let you know the reasons when I find out. With over 90,000 missionaries to soon be out, and the rate of Temples being built are higher than ever. I know that Jesus Christ himself is almost ready to come again. They cut off the Peru MTC and the Provo MTC because there was not enough room there. So if you are not ready, get ready. If you are not clean, get clean. Let's join forces to overcome the devil and allow the war to be won by the Saints again!
So theres my rant. (:
As far as numbers go, we have around 100-150 new missionaries arriving each week. Like I said earlier, the other 2 largest MTCs are at capacity because there are too many missionaries there. They are sending us here in Mexico many of the missionaries from Provo and Peru. This is not a lonely place anymore. We have had to move classrooms, and we can't even fit into the huge auditorium now. I wish to share the power of a bunch of 18-21 year olds who gave up their lives to serve the Lord. Anytime we all sing a song, it's amazing the power that comes with it. There are seventeen branches, with four or five districts in each, and 10-12 missionaries in each. Each district has its own teacher too. You can do the math, there are alot of people here right now. Its pretty crazy and amazing!
We had a Devotional from President Pratt about Temples. He is a church lawyer, and has helped find land for many of the South American Temples to be built upon. He went to every single dedication in South America! He is an amazing man inspired of God. He is very loving and very relaxed but likes to keep things in order.
I love it on Tuesday Devotionals when all the new missionaries arrive and they have no idea that we all wear suits on Devotional days and Sundays. They all come in in white shirts and ties, while everyone else is wearing suits. He makes a joke every week. He says all of you in the white shirts must have arrived today right? Everyone laughs. I also love it when he asks someone to read a scripture and they dont have their scriptures. He gets so mad, it's funny! But he's an awesome guy!
Sunday, we had an amazing day! Sundays are always great because you don't have to study Spanish, all you have to do is listen to the amazing talks, and feel the Spirit! We had a pretty awesome Priesthood meeting all about Power and Authority of the Priesthood! Then I taught our District meeting about the power of prayer. I spoke of my powerful experience earlier in the week, also my prayer that allowed my video to go viral. Everyone loves the viral video story because I talk about how I prayed for it to happen so that I could pay for my whole mission! All the missionaries in our zone always ask me about that story. I guess its pretty cool (:
They also always talk about Kylie. I guess I have the most beautiful girlfriend out of all of them. and I agree (: I pray every night for every missionaries girlfriend! Haha.
After district meeting, we had Sacrament and Fast and Testimony meeting. I bore my testimony on the importance of being happy and how the Gospel is a happy Gospel. I started off by walking up there and smiling for like twenty awkward seconds. Everyone just laughed. (: It was great! We then had a great Devotional by Elder Holland of the Qurom of the Twelve. It was a DVD, but yeah! haha. He talked all about how once you are converted, strengthen thy brotheren. Also, if you love me, feed my sheep. It was very powerful. If we love Jesus Christ, we have to feed his sheep and share the Gospel with everyone! Being a missionary requires an overnight change to be the best teachers in the world, with the most important message ever to be shared, with no hardly any training, no certificate of education, and no teaching experience. It's amazing how God can enable us to change into who He wants us to be almost overnight!
I love it on Tuesday Devotionals when all the new missionaries arrive and they have no idea that we all wear suits on Devotional days and Sundays. They all come in in white shirts and ties, while everyone else is wearing suits. He makes a joke every week. He says all of you in the white shirts must have arrived today right? Everyone laughs. I also love it when he asks someone to read a scripture and they dont have their scriptures. He gets so mad, it's funny! But he's an awesome guy!
Sunday, we had an amazing day! Sundays are always great because you don't have to study Spanish, all you have to do is listen to the amazing talks, and feel the Spirit! We had a pretty awesome Priesthood meeting all about Power and Authority of the Priesthood! Then I taught our District meeting about the power of prayer. I spoke of my powerful experience earlier in the week, also my prayer that allowed my video to go viral. Everyone loves the viral video story because I talk about how I prayed for it to happen so that I could pay for my whole mission! All the missionaries in our zone always ask me about that story. I guess its pretty cool (:
They also always talk about Kylie. I guess I have the most beautiful girlfriend out of all of them. and I agree (: I pray every night for every missionaries girlfriend! Haha.
After district meeting, we had Sacrament and Fast and Testimony meeting. I bore my testimony on the importance of being happy and how the Gospel is a happy Gospel. I started off by walking up there and smiling for like twenty awkward seconds. Everyone just laughed. (: It was great! We then had a great Devotional by Elder Holland of the Qurom of the Twelve. It was a DVD, but yeah! haha. He talked all about how once you are converted, strengthen thy brotheren. Also, if you love me, feed my sheep. It was very powerful. If we love Jesus Christ, we have to feed his sheep and share the Gospel with everyone! Being a missionary requires an overnight change to be the best teachers in the world, with the most important message ever to be shared, with no hardly any training, no certificate of education, and no teaching experience. It's amazing how God can enable us to change into who He wants us to be almost overnight!
Let's see... The food is getting a little better! We now have cold milk, and full meals (: Umm Spanish is still progressing, I can teach whole lessons in Spanish, and carry on a pretty good conversation! I am having a little trouble memorizing all the irregulaar verbs and the conjugations with all the different tenses, but I'm not worried because they say if you just know the verbs, that you will pick up the tenses in the field! I only have nineteen more days left here! It's pretty easy, but I just want to get out and talk to real people and start the real thing. I'm probably not quite ready, but it's all good (: I'm almost through Alma now! What amazing scriptures there are in the Book of Mormon! It's amazing how when I start worrying about something, there are answers that I need to hear with what I'm reading that day! Crazy!
I am currently learning "God Be with You til We Meet Again" and it's an amazing song! I love it. (: It reminds me of Logan, because he played it the morning before I left!
I'm just so stoked to share the Gospel with everyone, and to return home with honor.
Pictures: Our study spot, some lighting, lots of Pizza for every Tuesday, and some pretty good tortilla stuff.
Well, that' about everything I've done this week! I love all of you, and can't wait to be hanging out in Springfield again! I can't wait to hear from all of you! I'm almost done with one month! Only twenty-three more. (: It'll fly!
Love,
Elder McGee
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