Hola mis queridos amors (;

Hola mis queridos amors (;

La semana loca ya paso, asi que estoy super relajado ahorrita!

The crazy week has passed so I am now relaxed. (:

Anyways! Whats UP! My fellow americans. I miss the stars and stripes. Dont ever forgot how amazing our country is!

So where do I start off for this week. LEts see.. Sunday we were enjoyig a nice meeting in church and a dog just ran in. It was really funny, so we chased it out and everyone was laughing. We had 2 investigators and a less active in church this week. HOW cool! Thats crazy cause we never have time in the sector.

Monday night all the gringos flew home, and we spent a couple hours waiting in the airport for different people to leave on their flights home. A little trunky(trunky means like thinking of home) so we didnt get back to Rancagua until like 12. We had all the latins suitcases in the cars, and they were all leaving in 3 different trips in the morning so we had to take all their suitcases to them in their different places where they were staying the night. So we finally got to sleep around 1:30. Then we had our shift to drive up to santiago at 4:30 so we woke up at 4. So we got a couple hours of sleep. Then on our way back we picked up all the news in the Training Center here in Chile. 7 Hermanas and 5 Elders. That was way fun. So we mad eit back to rancagua around 830ish and has a conference for all of them. We then had varias tasks to do so we didnt get back home until about 11ish to get some sleep. Very long day. Its cool though because I just see all the small mircales in situations like this. Like I dont know how I had enough energy to keep going and driving and doing tasks. We also needed to buy some propane for the lunch and we were in a huge hurry and had no idea where a propane place would be close to presidents house. So we contuniued doing other errands, and lo and behold a propane gas truck stopped right in front of us and sold us some propane. It was amazing because there are like 3 gas companies here, and we had one called lipigas in the trunk. An empty one. And what do we know, a lipigas truck stiops and sells us gas on our way back to presidents house. How crazy.

I barely have enough time to write in my journal too!

Wednesday we went up to Santiago.

Thursday and Friday were office days. I bought some chalas (slippers) for the office. SICK.

Today we had a conference for all the northern zone leaders and ate papa johns for lucnh. EVEN SICKER. Now Im just hanging out talking to you all.

I also redesigned the mission logo this past week (:

Last thing is that I am in charge of taking out the checks from the bank because we got a new finance guy here, and he is waiting on his visa in chile. So this week I took out 1 Million pesos in cash. I felt like a rich missionary. (;

Say your prayers, thank God for everything he has given you becuase without Him, you would have NOTHING.

I miss and love you all. Que tengan una semana bacanisimo!

Love,

Elder SwagToTheMax McGee

photos:

-Dads birthday present for me

-Elder chagoyan from mexico and elder dixon ffrom utah, both good buddies who went home now.

-Saturday night papa johns!

-A Million pesos (2000 dollars)

Ustedes son mis ejemplos!

Ustedes son mis ejemplos!

 

Gracias por su apoyo!

This last week was a good one!

Well, I started off on sunday teaching a lesson in church which was wonderful! I had such a blast doing it! I really tryed to prepare myself more this past sunday for church, mentaly and spiritually.Just studying a little bit before for the different classes, and listening to some great mellow relaxing music. I realized that by preparing for church a little more, I was able to go to church with a jug instead of a cup because I really filled myself up with good stuff! Its so great to be able to have the opputunity to partake of the sacrament every sunday! (For those who may not know what we do, we partake of some bread and some water to rememeber the blood and flesh of Jesus Christ to remind us of the sacrfices that he made. The prayers that are offered before are beautiful. They help us to always remember Him and that we can always have his spirit to be with us. I highly reccomend listening to them!)

This past week in the office consisted of getting everyone who is about to go home arranged for some interviews and a last dinner at the Presidents house. As well as planning for this next coming week which is called la semana loca because we have like 14 people leaving and going home and 12 coming. So we are in charge of flights, getting people out and getting them here. So we do alot of santiago trips to the airport and the misisonary trianing center. Also we recived notice that alot of visas are ready to be taken out. so we made alot of calls to let people know what to do and how to get up to santiago!

We unfortunately had to take one elder home this past week, so we dropped him off at the airport at 430 AM that was a fun one.

Another time we we up to santiago we spent 6 hours driving around different places and paying different fines so that one missionary could get her package that was uphelp. It was ridicoulous, we payed over 100 dollars in fines (50000 pesos) and had to print off pictures of what was inside. My companion was very frustrated that day. haha. but we had alot of fun as well. We even found a SUBWAY in santiago! How awesome is that! I hadnt eaten a perfectly made sub in 8 months now! It was heavenly.

Along with all the confusion of people coming in and out, we got a new matrimonio this week ( Umm I think that means couple? Like a senior set of missionaries) So we are also losing some as well! They were great and fun, and now we have some new ones to work with here in the office! They are great people, we have got to spend a little time with them. They dont know much spanish so we will probably be answering alot of phones and helping them out becuase they are in charge of the houses and the money here in mission! So fun stuff.

The batemans are the ones leaving and they bought us McFlurries from McDonalds this past week! They are really expensive, so it was really nice! You dont each much ice cream here in chile!

I also got to look through a Brail version of a book of mormon this week. Way cool!

We even got one night this past week where we got to go out to the sector and be normal proselyting missioneries! Super awesome! We met alot of great people and even did one contact in English! haha fun stuff.

Today we went over to hangout with President and we played pingpong all morning and they made us a wonderfully delicious breakfast! President and Hermana Warne are seriously so great! Its wonderful to get to know them better!

So that was about it for my week! (:

Hope you all had a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder McGee

Pictures:

1.) These hot dogs are called choriplops. They are huge and just covered in mayonase and ketchup and tomatoes and goodness

2.) Mcflurries!

3.) We fit bikes in the elevator to take up to the house one night when we didnt have a car.

4.) Beautiful morning

5.) and 6.) house pictures to motivate us!

I am always just going going going!

I am always just going going going!

But I love it. I barely have time to think for myself.

Its great to be able to just be helping the mission out and the other missioneries! I love doing all the behind the scenes work!

This past weeks work included and was not limited to:

-Confirming flight schedules for the outgoing missioneries.

-Confirming arrivals in the missionary training center.

-Arranging special changes for emergency situations and moving missionaries to different parts.

-making santiago trips to make sure all missionaries have valid Chilean visas.

-Cleaning out an old missionary apartment.

These are just some of the various things we do each week! Each of the 6 weeks of the 6-week cycle include different tasks! So this week we are taking care of new missionaries and old missionaries.

Its alot of office work, but at the same time, I get to conocer (to know) almost all the misisonaries in the mission. I also know alot of their first names (Which is weird becuase we refere to other missionaries as Elder or Hermana and their last name)

I cant tell you all the little lessons I learn from God, from other people, and learn about myself each week! Ive been trying to write them down.

One thing that I have noticed lately is there are alot of people out there that just ask you for 100 pesos here. Which is like 20 cents. I started trying to give them a nice little picture of Jesus for a reminder. Its really interesting that these people wont except a free nice little gift. I leaves me in awe everytime that reject it. How could someone turn down a reminder of Jesus and what he did for us because they are too focues on getting money. So how can this relate to you? Just as the homeless man is constantly focused on recieving more money and forgets what this life is really about, are we often forgetting as well? Are we too wrapped up in facebook, texting, cars, work, or other things and forget some of the more important things in this life as in Religion, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, family, and striving to achieve true happiness? Hmm. Seems as if we all fall into patterns and start to justify and tell ourselves that Work is more important than church, so we skip church. Or we find that drama in highschool proves to be too much and we skip out on church activities. Well I have had these same problems as well. But we can all get better. I challenge anyone who reads this to take 10 minutes out of each night and offer up a solemn simple prayer to our Heavenly Father who has given us SOOOO Much. (Everything that we have) Just try it and find the blessings that come with it. Just 10 minutes to think, pray, and meditate. I can write about it all I want, but you will never know until you try these things. So unlike the homeless man who is focused on getting his money and less about the important things in life, we need to be a little bit better and sit back and thank God for everything we have. So theres my thought of the week.

Yesterday we spent the day in Santiago again. Its really a cool city! I have a blast going up there. We were able to spend the day with a married couple of missionaries who are so cool! They are called the Walls. I learned alot from them in that day. We also got to eat at the Mtc. It was way good!

Today we ended up going to the same beach we did last week, but this time we relaxed a little more and adventured a little less. Fun fact of the day: I had to pay 40 cents to enter the bathrooms today. Interesting.

I had a wondeful week! I hope you all did as well.

"We show God our loyalty and Gratitud by progressing forward and becoming better than we were the day before"

Love,

Elder McGee

Well hey hey hey!

Another week come and gone! Sometimes I think about time for a second, and it’s so slow, and then I think about it again and another 2 weeks has gone by.

This week we had a few mentionable experiences! We got another rental car because the one that we had went into the shop, so we got this little white racer car, and its stick, and it’s pretty fast. So we had a lot of fun with that!

One night we took an Elder up to the airport at about 12, and didn’t get home till 3ish or so. It was way fun cause we went up with the Assistants as well. So those nights are always fun! It’s interesting here because the speed limits say 100-120 kilometers an hour, so it different like that!

Another day we did some service for a lady in the ward who had an almond tree. It was super cool to climb up into it and just shake the whole tree as hard as you can. It was actually pretty tiring. But it was so cool because thousands of almonds just fell out of the tree onto the concrete below. It sounded like hail. But we swept them all up and then put them in bags. There were SO MANY!

On Monday we went up to Santiago and did some visa work and other stuff for the mission and then we stopped by this really cool little South American mall place. They had like everything you can imagine. Cool backpacks, cool Latin shoes. It was basically like a huge Mexican souvenirs place, but Chile style. I bought some cool stuff and talked a lot of people down. It was cool to see what my Spanish could get me (:

Another day we marinated some chicken in pineapple juice all morning and then cooked it up. It was amazing (:

As far as the missionary work goes, we have been able to get out and teach a few lessons here, which have been GREAT. But most of our work is just finding people in the government buildings or hospitals and then passing their information to other Elders! It’s great to find spiritual experiences around anywhere. I think one of my favorite parts about each day is just to go out onto the balcony and pray for as long as my heart desires. I just listen and overlook the beautiful downtown form 9 stories up, and enjoy the fresh air with a hood on and just meditate. I have really been just rebuilding myself as a person. So that’s my challenge to you all this week. Find 10-15, maybe even 30 minutes. Put your phone in another room, put on some comfy clothes, and just find a nice spot preferably outside and just enjoy what God has given us. Enjoy the wind, the nature, and just pray and find out who you really are. Find out what you want to do and what you should do next to get there. “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” The only way we can build that door is if we ask for a little more help from God.

Today, can I just say was absolutely amazing! We went down to a little place called Constitution. It probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. This place was just amazing! Ill just try to send some pictures so you get the idea! We woke up at 5 this morning to drive the 4 hour drive down south. We have a little rental car for right now, and this little thing is awesome! I drove us down. We all just had a blast and everyone said it was the best pday in their whole missions. One of them who is going home said that as well! And he’s had 2 years of Pdays!

If you want to be blown out of your mind, read this talk:http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1966 it absolutely changed my mind and made me a different person. I highly recommend it. It talks about how Christ’s sacrifices are already made. We will never pay him back. The only thing we can do is live right, follow the commandments, and be obedient to his words. If we are falling into sin and falling into things of the world, we are not showing Christ our love. I think often times we say we are Christians, and we believe in Christ, but this talk really showed me that we do not love Christ if we are not doing the things that he wants. We should not be messing around with sin at all. Just read the talk. (:

“Our most significant opportunities will be found in times of greatest difficulty,” –Thomas S. Monson

For real, you guys are great. I love you all.

Love,

Santiago, working out, and living the goodlife!

Wow where to start!

Lets just say that this was probably the fastest week of my life with everything going on! Its amazing! Just having a blast!

We started a diet in the house with live in with 4 elders. So we are all working out and eating super healthy things like salmon and celery! Its great and I feel good! We are doing like 2 miles every morning as well! Its wonderful to take care of our bodies that God has given us and to really feel more energy and feel happier (:

On Tuesday we got a call from President early in the morning that we were to go up to santiago to pick up 2 gringos from the airport. We had no description of them whatsoever and the santiago airport has tons of people in it, Im sure you can imagine. So we saw some new misisonaries who couldnt speak a lick of spanish and we helped them change out some of their money, and then we saw some missionaries who were going home while we were waiting! So after like an hour of waiting we finally met the two guys we were to pick up. They were coming down to film Elder Archuleta and a video they are working out which is kinda like an extended mormon message! Little did I know that these guys had the future job that I would love to do! We talked for the next 2 days as we were in charge of taking them up to santiago to film and record a song. These guys have worked on alot of the bigger videos the church has made. One of them directed the Jospeh Smith movie, and the other had made almost all the mormon messages. It was so thrilling to be able to help them out filming and talk aboutt all the different things about the film career. I mean these guys are literally emplooyeed by the church and go around making mormon messages and filming alo of what the general presidency of the church do! They had been to all countries in the world except for 2! How cool of a job to work for the church traveling and making movies! I just had such a ball! As well has hanging out with Elder Archuleta who is a super cool dude! We recorded a song up in Santiago, and they filmed around a little bit, and let me play with their Canon Mark III´s (: It was like a dream come true to kinda see what I could do in the future if I keep Gods commandments and do what I need to do like serve the mission!

 We were in Santiago and we had the misison van which actually doesnt have a back window. So we parked in kinda in front of the temple and left for about 20 minutes. We had come back to see that everything in the car was kinda scattered around outside, and there were about 15 cops coming from everyone on their dirtbikes and in their cars. We had been robbed in the 20 minutes that we left the car! They tackled the robber right in front of us and cuffed the dude. He had gone through the whole car and took the radio, my back with everything in it like scriptures and pen drives, and the film guys suitcases which fortunatly didnt have their expensive cameras! But it was juyst crazy, so we had to go to the police stattion and file a report. The police here are called Carribineros! They wear green uniforms. But it was all just so crazy! I couldnt believe it. But we got everything back and he didnt make it away with anything! So thanks to God and his blessings, I got all my stuff back! It was just crazy.

We also got to go down to the most southern part of the mission this week with president to a place called Talca. It was cool because we did a signing of a covenenant with a hospital down there. It was really formal. They took pictures and everything, Then I got to go see my buddie Elder Loveridge which is always great to see the guys I came out with. We checked out a cool mountain overlooking the city of Talca.

Today we tried something I had never tried before called Donut Burgers. We made burgers and bought dunkin donuts and bacon and made a sandwich out of it. It doesnt seem like it would be the best, but i would highly reccomend it! It was truly ricisimo! ( Delicious)

So that was my crazy fast week in a jffy!

I hope you all had a wonderful week like I did (:

Love Elder McGee