Yoooo, ¿Que pasaaaaaaa??

Dear Family and Friends, 

I'm going to share with you a little bit about how my week went. I would just like to say that I'm loving the mission and any trial that comes at me, I just push aside and keep going. There's not enough time in the mission to do anything except work for the people we are teaching!

Para mi, El español es mucho mas facil a entender! Entiendo es un bendecione grande de Dios! Estoy aprendiendo tanto! Miguel me envio un carte este semana, y puedo entender todos! El escribio en espanol un poco! Pero, este semana fue super bakan! Estoy disfrutiendo este obra mucho! Me gusta aprendiendo los palabras de Chile! Algunas son muy chistoso, como flyte! Lo signica como Gangsta. Jajaja. Ok, ahorra en Ingles para mis amigos que no pueden hablar español (:

Guys, Chile is treating me well!

I just want to thank everyone for your nice compliments and encouraging words to me. It's so nice every week to check the e-mails, and receive such a strength of the support that I have at home. Thank you guys so much for being so positive and helping me out. You have no idea what even the smallest letters or words of encouragement do for me. I received like ten letters this week. It was so great to hear what's going on with the family and the ward. So thank you for anyone who has sent me a letter. You guys are the besttttt!!

This past week, the ward had a Halloween party! The ward here is pretty great. When they have an activity -- everyone attends! Anyways, there's an hermano who is a DJ. He set up his system, and was playing a bunch of music I used to play. Missionaries aren't allowed to dance, so it was nice to just relax and listen to some good music in English. (: Sometimes, it would start cussing, and I would tell him what it was saying. It was pretty funny, because they had no idea what it was saying! I also got to talk to a woman who is learning English. So with her broken English and my broken Spanish, we could talk about anything! Haha.

I have been really praying, and fasting for my Spanish to develop. I work hard on it every chance I get. While my companion plays guitar or takes naps or goes to bed early, I'm studying Spanish. I know that if I try my hardest that it will come and the Lord will bless me. (: I just want to be able to speak my heart to this people and share my joy. Right now, all I can do is smile and occasionally add something and shake my head! haha.

Dallas, remember that Don Omar song (in Spanish that) we used to DJ with a lot? I could understand the whole song at that party (:

This week, I really started craving a Lambert's roll with some honey on it! Can you guys have them throw me one all the way to Chile? hahaha.

Dad, I heard some of your music this week: "I Ain't Missin' You" and some Milli Vanilli! I was pretty pumped. These Chileans have some good taste in music.

Okay, so this week one night after a long hard day of work, we finally fell asleep. At about 12:30 am, I woke up to what literally sounded like a war outside. It sounded like there were bombs going off -- just the loudest noises. They were shaking the whole house. I mean these things were louder than anything I've ever heard outside. So my companion and I got out of bed in a srcramble not knowing what to do! We looked outside and there were quite a few people in the street. After figuring out for a few minutes what was going on, we realized it was fireworks! We don't really know what went on that night because fireworks are illegal in Chile. It was pretty scary. Afterwards, we just laughed and went back to sleep!

We have been making brownies and "puppy chow" (Chex mix).  This week we are attempting corn bread. The people here love this stuff! It's funny! We tell members we will make them snacks if they have us over with one of their friends. It works pretty well. (:

We also got TEN dollars this past week because we had one of the top five cleanest houses in the whole mission. I think it's because the first day I got into my house, I was like, ohhh no. We are cleaning this a lot. So we spent almost the whole first preparation day cleaning. I cleaned pretty deep. And I make my companion clean up his messes every day. (:

As far as blessings go... this week we had no new investigadors. By numbers, we are supposed to have eight a week. That's our goal -- usually we get four or five. This week we had none. Absolutely none. So we fasted for it.

Yesterday, it was about 9:15 pm. We had about 15 minutes until we had to be home. I said a quick prayer in my head that the people we could find would be outside and waiting for us. So my companion said, "Well, we have no lessons. Everything fell through, lets just go home..." And I replied, "Okay, but let's take the long way and talk to everyone outside."

We ended up finding a couple who was outside talking in their nice, little garden. It was awesome! We taught them a quick lesson and hurried home so we could be in on time. The smallest blessings are the best!!

Also, we have some investigators who have been living together for fourteen years. You can't get baptized unless you live the Law of Chastity and since they are living together, they couldn't be baptized. Soooo, this week, we got big news that they are getting married!! Woooo. After fourteen years! Some people would call that good timing. I know that they were being prepared for us by God, and that it was a blessing.

This Saturday we have two baptisms! Wooo! (: (One of them is in the photo in a red shirt standing next to me.)

Anyways, have an awesome week and a safe Halloween. I will be praying for you all as usual. If you could this week, add in your prayers, that Spanish can come more easily for me, I would appreciate it. I'm going to try extra hard this week and a few more prayers would be great! Thank you. (:  I love you all!

Love,

Elder McGee

Wow another week again?? Where is time going!!

Wow, another week again??

Where is time going!!

I just want to thank everyone for their letters this week. Always making me feel loved, and happy! (:

Chile is the coolest place to live!

Can we all just move here together? Then we can all be here as family and friends together, and speak spanish! (:

This past week we watched Chile beat Ecuador so they can play in the World Cup! Chile literally shuts down for soccer! Next year is the World Cup, so I don't even want to know how it's going to be, but hey I'll find out! After they won, we were walking home, and you could see the TVs on in every house. We could hear people screaming and yelling, and honking their horns for the next hour. It's so cool the pride that they have here! I love it! So yeah! Chile 2014! Woo!!! It's way bigger than the Super Bowl. I'm not exaggerating when I say that EVERYONE watches the game!

Houses here sell for about 50,000 dollars. That's for a pretty nice one, too! It's interesting. I could see doing some international real estate! But, I'm focused on the mission and not thinking about business right now. (:

This week, we taught a seminary class, had eight people come to church, and taught fifteen lessons, I think! Pretty good stats! It feels good to be successful here! We also have three baptismal dates coming up, and we are going to try to get a fourth this week. (:

I find myself doing Spanish work all the time. It's funny because before, I would never do my Spanish homework! Now, I do Spanish homework in the morning, after lunch and a little before bed! I just wanna get it down! I know it's only been like a month and a half in Chile, but I know that if I do my part in studying, that the Lord will bless me with this language! (:

I see Logan is becoming a stud! All types of girls over there for him! (: Keep up the work Logan!

I've been carrying around Dad's nametag from when he was on a mission and so far its proved to be good luck! He's the greatest guy ever! I'm sure he was a great missionary too! (:

Our Bishop here was wearing a Food Lion shirt one day. I thought that was pretty funny! (Food Lion is like an east coast Price Cutter.)

We have been teaching a boy who is 12-years-old. He is so awesome! He often wants to come hangout with us. One night he came up to our appartment and wanted to know if he could just hangout with us. We were already in bed! Haha! He has memorized all of the Ten Commandments, and is now reading The Book of Mormon! It's amazing to see that a young kid has such a strong desire to know the truth! We are also teaching his family and his cousin. They are a great family! We play lots of games to teach them! It's fun being creative with them. (:

This week I truly tried to study The Book of Mormon. I pray before I study every day, and then I read each verse slowly. Sometimes several times! It's amazing how much information is actually in there! It's so cool too! We can learn much from it! I've been keeping track of how many (Books of Mormon) I've given out! So far I'm at ten and it hasn't been two months. So if I keep this up, I could give out like one hundred somthing by the end of the two years. (:

Well, that's about it for this week, I think!

I love getting all your emails every week! (:

Thanks for remembering me down here in Chile! I think about you all - all of the time.

Don't forget that you are all in my prayers every day! (:I love all of you!

Do some service for someone this week! Remember, "when you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God!"

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder McGee

familyyyy and friends (:

Family and friends, (:

You guys are awesome! I just want you to know that I love each and every one of you!

This week was pretty great!

Yesterday I didn't get to write because we were super busy trying to get a bunch of stuff done for the week! Our laundry machine broke so we took it to a member's house and she said she would just do it for us. She also made me an awesome laundry bag! The members here are so great!! (:

This morning, we did some service for a little market that burned down yesterday. It was cool because the owners were just having a good time with everything, and smiling and laughing. It made me reflect a little bit on how no matter what happens, if you take the positive side of things, you will always be happier! As we were throwing piles of burnt stuff away, there were  tons of melted soda cans, boxes of melted popsicles, and other random stuff that would be in a market! The guys helping clean up kept trying to save all the alcohol bottles, while I was just chucking them in the trash can and breaking them. Haha. Our Bishop was there helping too! By the end of it, my shoes were soaked in alcohol, soda, and melted ice cream! What an enjoyable time. Haha It actually was pretty fun though. We ended up teaching a lesson too. (:

Last week we had a great Zone Conference with two zones, the President of the mission and a bunch of missionaries. I said the opening prayer. It was pretty nerve racking (to say it) in Spanish, but it just flowed out perfectly. (: I'm really enjoying all the amazing experiences I'm having here in Chile. The mission is truly a paradise. It's hard sometimes, but who wouldn't want to go to another country, learn another language, meet all the coolest people, and become closer to God than ever before. I don't have to worry about anything except serving the Lord. HOW COOOOOL. (:

Spanish is slowly coming, but I can now understand what people are saying, and defend myself if someone asks me a question. I used to have to look at my companion for anything. It's amazing to see God bless me with learning this so fast. Tomorrow is 3 months!! Can you believe it?? Freaking crazy, huh?

Well, I just wanted to share a few experiences about my week. If you have any questions for me, just ask away. (:

My quote for this week is from an awesome song I have on my iPod. It says: "Don't give up what you want most, for what you want now." So don't ever change the person you are trying and working so hard to be for a simple worldy satisfaction. Be strong, and push through your trials! We can all do better every day. Just pick something you don't like about yourself, and change it!

Sorry that I didn't take many pictures this week! I will do more for next week!!

I love you all, and hope you all have a wonderfully great week. (:

Love,

Elder McGee

Hola familiaaaaaa and amigos!

Hola familiaaaaaa and amigos!

Este semana fue superrrrrrr bakan! Chile es le mejor pais en la mundo! A veces, no pienso yo salir mi pais, por que este pais es superrrr buena! Todos los Elderes, and miembros aqui son marvilouso! Estoy super feliz y contento! (:

Hello English speakers! (:

Guys, this past week was great! We had some good experiences and finished it off with Conference! Wow! Chile is finally starting to warm up. There's no such thing as a 'white Christmas' in Chile, in fact, most of the Christmas songs don't even make sense here... because it's Summer and blazing hot during these next couple months! It's weird too, because school here is about to let out for Summer!

I am just having the best time. I have met so many cool families, and other missionaries. The first change is this week and it's really sad to see some of the missionaries leave to other places of the mission!

I really kicked it in with Spanish this week! It's way exhausting, and I get made fun of a lot by the members and others, but hey how else do you learn? I just start speaking what's on my mind, and if I mess up, then so what? It's not my first language and I can get away with saying whatever I want because they know I am learning! But it's getting better, every single day. I feel like I can understand most at this point which is good!

This past week, we had a good experience. We have a less-active that we are teaching to come back to church! He had some smoking and drinking problems, and other problems with his family. After a few weeks of teaching him principles, and why we always need to go to church, and read the scriptures, and pray -- I have seen a change in him.  He has stopped smoking and drinking and has come to church a few times. He gave us a reference of his sister. We went over there and taught her and we had a good experience! They seemed to enjoy our message.

A few weeks had gone by and we couldn't get ahold of them which was strange because the first lesson went awesome! So our less active, Luis said he would come with us. I'd never seen him so pumped or have a desire to do anything with the church, and now he was pumped to go teach his sister. We went to her house and yelled, "ALLO" because everyone here has a gate, so we don't knock on doors. She popped out of the window becuase she heard her brothers voice, and said she was sick and didn't have time - which is a usual excuse. He said,  "I don't care, put on some clothes, I have the missioneries with me, and they have an important message!" He barged in through their gate, and door, and their two daughters were watching a movie on the couch. He told them to move because we were about to teach!

The whole family gathered around, and we taught a beautiful first lesson of Joseph Smith and the Restoration of God's authority on Earth today! The Spirit was strong and Luis had taught half the lesson. He was so happy to share his knowledge of the Restored Gospel with his sister. Its amazing to see how someone went from drinking and smoking to doing missionary work. Wow. A true blessing for us, for him, and for his sister. It was perfect. (:

Conference was amazing. Almost every talk spoke of missionary work. My favorite was Edward Dube. He spoke on how we should never look back. I'm pretty sure he knew he was speaking right to me in Chile. I was fortunate to watch it in English with fifteen other gringo missionaries. I learned a lot and took fifteen pages of notes. (:  Wow!

Guys, I want you to know that I love you so much!!

Our house flooded this week, and our laundry machine broke. We did laundry at a members house! haha. I'm so glad to hear everyone is doing awesome.  What the heck happened to Hanna and Sydney? You guys need to stop growing up! Or at least wait until I get back to beat all those guys up!

We have been making brownies for a lot of people. No one here has had them and they love them!  I went on splits with one of our Zone Leaders this week. It was really fun!

But really, I love all of you guys. The time is flying by and it's nice to have the support of everyone at home.

Grandma sent me a quote this week that I really liked: "Jesus is a gentlemen, and He will only come if you invite Him."

Another quote I really like (which is on my wall at home) is:  "The challenges ahead of you are not nearly as great as the power behind you." It has a picture of a boy navigating a ship with Jesus Christ behind him pointing where to go.

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, Redeemer, and Brother. I testify nearly crying to people every day! He died so that we could live with our Heavenly Father again. Don't ever take that for granted. Thank God for Him sending His son in each and every one of your prayers!

I love you all. 

Tengan un bakan semana!

Have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder McGee in Chile.