Hey again!

Hey again!
Times just flyin! May is already gone. We had interviews with President this past Sunday and I know I'll be leaving the office back to the sector in about 8 weeks, so that'll be good! My training of Elder Johns is going awesome and we are having blast! Nothing better than some Missouri-Tennessee redneck humor (;
This week was super busy! Lots of papeleo! (Paperwork) wanna know why? Because we had a 70 come visit the mission! Elder Salas se llama. Basically he is part of 70 other guys who help run the church in different parts of the world! Above him would be the 12 apostles. Exactly like the original gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe in the same exact church and structure that Jesus established here on the earth when he was here. So it was cool. He gave our mission alot of awesome ideas of how to be become better. So in preparation for him to come, we made him a super cool little book with any type of dat you could think of about the mission. How many elders, how many hermanas, number of people in each zone and all kinds of other things. I was pleased to be able to put the new logo big and beautiful on the front page of it. I had alot of fun designing it and making it professional!

This week I have been thinking alot about progression. The dictionary definition is: A movement toward a goal or to a further or higher stage. So what would our goal be in this life? Mine is to have an awesome family and experiance true happiness in every moment! Im sure everyone has a life goal they would like to achieve. But what about a higher goal than that? What about eternal happiness and perfect joy. What about living with our family together forever, and living in a place where we will be perfect. What about progressing to the point where we will live with God the Father, and his son Jesus Christ again? Wouldnt that be something we all would want. Well there is only one way to do it. PROGRESS. I like to look at each day here in the mission and base by day off of my progress. Did I win the day or did I learn something each day? If not I am doing something wrong. Am I devoloping Christ-like attributes each and every day? God doesnt care where we are in life as long as we are progressing. Its gonna be hard, and its gonna be long! But, without struggle, there is not progress. If we dont evauluate how we are doing, how are we progressing to achieve ETERNAL HAPPINESS. Its uncomprehendable, but I know that I want it! So how do we get there? It just takes simple and easy steps. The best way is to start and what has helped me the most in the mission is consistancy. 

1. Prayer day and night thanking God for my blessings and asking for strength to continue progressing.

2. Scripture study to learn of our fathers and how the handled waging their own war against satan so that we dont have to go through the same thing they did.

3. Church attendance. To recieve extra support in our progression and the renew baptismal convenants by using the Atonement of Jesus Christ to repent for our sins each week!

Those 3 things will change your life more than any other little thing! Progression is impossible without change. C. S. Lewis wrote of

 ​ progress to meet​

 God’s expectations for His children: “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace

 ​.​

” P.s. Look up Alma 5:14 in the Book of Mormon.

Today we went to the beach in Constitution for the 3rd time (:

Here are some pictures.

One of Elder Salas. The member of the 70 that came

Another of watering flowers at the mission house

Another wonderful week!

HI.

 

Another wonderful week!

Im coming up on 11 months and that means almost a year! I cant believe I graduated a year ago. Im still telling stories about last summer like that happened a few months ago. but no. Its been a year!

We had a pretty busy week here in the office! My companion and I are just having such a blast. Its quite the job, and can be stressful alot. But for someone who thinks that cant feel stress, Ive definitely felt a little bit lately. We have sent up around 45 missionaries up to Santiago to renew their visas or take one out for the first time. The process takes about a day, and those days are crazy because we take qualquier call and just manage everyone. But ITS A BLAST. We have been trying to get up to Santiago at least once a week so that we can make the process go smooth and take out the Carnets (License or visa). We found taco bell up there and its so wonderful. Its still super expensive. If you wanna eat cheap here, eating out is not the way to go. Even something like taco bell, you have to pay 4,000 pesos. Or like 8 bucks just for a few tacos. While we were in Santiago, we ran into a man from England, and another couple from Australia. It was fun to get to know some of them and ask why they were here. We had to do some waiting up there so we decided to visist this random giant hill with a castle on it in the middle of Santiago. It was cool!

Well as Ive been coming up onto a year mark in the mission, and being away from beautiful Miss Missouri, Ive kinda had the opputunity to look back on who I was a year ago. Its amazing to see the changes Ive made and wanted to make. My will is a little bit closer to Gods now. I have opened my eyes, and really just tried to help out everyone I can, even if its just a simple Hola, Como esta in the calle. (street). But to get where we want to be we are going to have some troubles getting there becuase there are even forces working against us merely for the fact of making us miserable. MY challenge for you this week, is to:

1: Start doing something awesome.

2: Keep doing something good.

3: Stop doing something bad.

I have found that living here in Chile is normal now. Everything around me is just part of my life here. The food, the houses without heating or cooling. The rules of the road. The language. Everything seems like I am just used to it now. Its nice to feel a little comfortable! Its crazy how much you dont miss something, until you dont have it. But its even crazier to think that you can keep going on in life without it, and become used to the life you are now living. But, Im happier than ever and wouldnt change a thing! (:

Ive recently been crazed with drinking cold ment water. Its delish!

Awesome quote of the week. When you feel like quiting something. Remember the reason WHY you started.

Read the scriptures, go to church. Communicate with our maker and thank Him for everything that you have in your life, DAILY.

Love, Elder McGee

Good week, good stuff, and living the life!

Well hey there!

Good week, good stuff, and living the life!

Some of my tasks this week included redoing the mission website,

researching how we can do some video conferencing (I emailed the Tulsa Ok mission to figure out how they do it)

Going to up Santiago to work with some goverment workers about our visas. (and we found a taco bell up there!!! Heaven.)

Buying 80 pounds of ties (for 10 mil pesos, or 20 dollars)

and just having a complete blast!

We live with 3 gringos, so its funny cause sometimes we just start talking about american pride, and we are preparing for the 4th of Julyhere, and sometimes we lose some sleep at night because we are all just so stoked about our country!

Not too much really happened this week!

I got in alot of good study time reading the book of mormon! What a wonderful book.

Have you read it? If not, do it. It will change your life, and I promise its better than any other book you could find!

One of the best parts of being a missionary is that people just open up to you. I can star a conversation with someone about last nights soccer game and then within 2 minutes, people open up to whats going on in their life right now, and what they could use, and then my job is to apply to Gospel of Jesus Christ into their life and help them out. Its seriously the best thing ever to just talk with collectivo and bus drivers or someone waiting at the stoplight to cross the road. Being the secretary I dont have the time to just be out in a sector and spend all my time tlaking with poeple, so I spend my time talking and sharing while we are out on errands! Its awesome! The only way to truly feel true happiness is through our savior Jesus Christ and what he did for us by atoning for our sins. To feel happiness we must also share it! Its awesome. Its great to apply it to all people rich, poor, large, small, happy, sad, purple, white, organge. Everyone wants to be happy, and Thats why im here. To share with others my happiness and my joy! All flowers must grow through dirt.

I saw an aweosme quote this week.

If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap.

If you want happiness for a day, go fishing.

If you want happiness for a month, get married.

If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune.

If you want happiness for a lifetime, help someone else.

Im not sure about the marriage thing, but I like the idea of where it was going. (Im pretty sure that getting married will bring me lifetime happiness as well)

Anyways. I love you guys a ton! 

Enjoy some pictures.

Elder McGee

Miss you all and excited to talk to you tomorrow (:(:

Hey there!

We had another wonderful week here in Paradise Chile!

Its starting to get colder and colder! Today you couldnt even see the mountains because of all the fog!

This past weekend we had a general authrority come to our stake conference and he gave some wonderful messages!

We had the big changes for the mission this past week, and usually about 30 percent of the people get switched to a new area. So some odd 250 missionaries are traveling around and getting with their new companions, we are in charge of taking missionaries to the airport and picking up the new ones. This week is called the semana loca for many reasons! This change went really smooth, thanks to all the planning we did in advanced. We sent home 13 and recieved 17. We had our last almuerzo with all the old missionaries, and took them up to santiago on monday at night. It was pretty tough to see some good buddies go! We got home at like 8 and immediately started planning for all the latins to go home throughout the night. We made the trip up at 4 in the morning, waking up at 3. We dropped them off and made sure they got on and then headed over to get all the news waiting for us. That was a blast. We got them all back to Rancagua safely and got them to the meetings. We gather alot of visa stuff and they get a small training, recieve their trainer and then head our to the sector. We are in charge everyone gets tp the bus station of their sector safely. Then we are finished with the changes. Its alot of work and very little sleep for a couple days in there! We imediately got to work on all the legal work for the new poeple and then wednesday they had a leaderhsip meeting. We didnt have a car this day so we headed to presidents house in a collectivo which is like a taxi but its on a circuit, and then president wanted us to run some errands, so he gave us his car which is pretty nice and an honor for him to trust us! We ran all around and finished stuff, and then the next day we ran up to santiago so that we could get some legal work done, and some other medical stuff as well. We got extremely lost too. It was a blast, but there are alot of poeple there! I got sick this past week cause we missed out on a lot of sleep, but here in the office, you cant really take a sick day cause the work needs to be done, so you lift up your head and keep going. There is a ton to do, and on top of that Im training my companion how to do everything as well! Its fun, but Im learning stuff as we go! So that was basicallly my crazy week. There is never a dull moment here though. Im with some of the greatest people and we just have a complete blast! In the office we are 6 elders and a senior couple. 3 gringos, 1 from columbia, 1 from guatemala, and the other from mexico. Its a blast!

I also got to see a family that means alot to me from my first area. They are called the Peñalillos! I saw them and with my first companion. It was a good moment (:

Today the other elders had to go do different takss around the mission but my companoion and I continued with our normal prep day. We did some shopping for the week and then headed into the mountains to explore. It was a blast. My companion  reminds me a ton of sterling! He just laughs about everything, so we have a good time! I got my birthday package from the family! I enjoy it alot and thanks for all the letters that came in it! Thanks to benji for the new yoyo strings, so that I can impress all the kids here in Chile! I have the best family!

Congrats to Dallas for graduating and Dad on the new business.

Miss you all and excited to talk to you tomorrow (:(:

Hey familia!

Hey familia!

This week was a pretty busy one, as they all are here in the paradise of Chile!

-The biggest news, would be that I got a new companion here in the office with me!

his name is Elder Johns, and he will be the new secretary with me! I will be training him and are gonna have a blast! He is from tennesee so we have already been making red neck jokes and what not!

-The past week we got to eat with a senior couple here with us. They made us an american meal and it was heavenly! Afterwords, he sat down and played us a bunch of really inspirational songs. It was a fun experiance!

-One day we went up to Santiago to get some carnets for differnet misisonaries! We got to show my new companion around. The big cities are fun and all, but for me, I would prefer little Rancagua or Springfield. There is just a sense of urgency when you are there.

-We had our first rain storm here in Rancagua. It was my first time seeing rain since I got here. It rained for a couple days and flooded, which wasnt too different from home. But the cool thing was that it capped all the mountains with snow. so it looks beautiful here now! Its starting too cool off. We dont have central heating in the houses here in Chile, so it gets chilly at night!

-Last sunday we actually had a cool experiance! We went out into the sector for once to teach some people. We had 2 lessons that night, and both of them were awesome. The first one, we took the new senior couple of missionaries out with us, who dont speak much spanish. It was cool to see how much I had progressed since I got here almost 10 months ago not knowing anything! Anyways, we helped out a lady who was really struggling, we taught her about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and how because of what he did takes the weight off our shoulders if she will let him in to her life. There were lots of tears of Joy and happiness! The second lesson we had we picked up a joven from the ward, and took him around not knowing where to go, cause we dont really know anyone in our ward. He took us to this house and we entered. The wife was an inactive member of the church and was having a really hard day. We happened to show up and shared a little message and she was just so joyeful and thanked us with tears. She has special duaghter and we helped her move her into her bed. They were just 2 really neat experiances and special (:

-We helped out the comisarios this week a little bit too and painted some of the mission houses we have here!

-Read Alma 32:15 in the Book of Mormon. It helped me out this week (:

-Today we went exploring around a lake for Prep day!

Love you all and have a good week!

How beautiful this world truly is!

Well I just wanna thank you all who participated in my super awesome birthday video!
That was soooo awesome (: It made me super trunky, but I loved it! I seriously have the best family and friends!!

Anyways, this week I turned 19 and it was a beautiful day! My companion and I went to a nearby lake and did our weekly planning! Then I just sat there and overlooked the different shaded blue mountains, the changes colors leaves, and the beautiful blue water, and just thought about how beautiful this world truly is!

We ordered pizza 3 times this week.. It was good. Papa Johns all the way!

I finalized and approved our new mission logo! President was very happy about it. It was cool to actually put my talents to use again (:

We went shopping all around town to find a person who could make us a big huge picture frame for the big map we printed off of the mission!

On tuesday we headed up to Santiago to get some visa work done for the other misisonaries, and we had the oppurtunity for my companion to go see his brother who will be serving a little more south in Chile. When you fly into santiago from chile, you have to leave and go back through security to fly internationally. So it was cool for him to see his brother! We also met some new missionaries, and one who was going home. It was cool!

One senior couple of missionaries named the Jetts invited me over for a birthday almuerzo and it was super yummy! curi Food!

One day I went to the district meetings and they were doing some practices, so I just hungout with President for a while. It was cool to just talk about normal stuff with him! He is a wonderful man, and really guides this mission where is should go!

Yesterday I ate with some members from my first area of being here in chile. It was really good to visit them. Their son is actually in the mission where Dallas is going! So they will probably meet! Small world.

Other than all that, we finished the change plans which are coming up next week. Basically we are in charge of getting the old misisonaires out of here and get the new ones here safe and sound! We have 19 new people coming this next change. The 6th of May. Thats crazy because each one of them needs a trainer, and they each of 2-3 suitcases. So its just a crazy week! But Im looking forward to it (:

I love each and everyone one of you! Thanks for all your support!

Love,

Elder McGee

p.s. There are alot of pictures this week (:

Crazy couple of days this week!

I forgot to wish you all a happy easter!

Watch this awesome video (:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3TI4bYerU

Crazy couple of days this week! Sunday night we had a Hermana in the hospital because she passed out, then Monday we had an injury and another Hermana passed out and went to the hospital. We also had a robbery and someone enter into one of the houses! Haha Crazy South American stuff! Now don’t get me wrong, Chile is super safe, but like anywhere things can happen! Elder Harding and I have been working on a song together and we will be sending home a video muy pronto! So I hope you all enjoy soon (;

We had more conferences this week with some of the zones sown south. We haleped with the food, and was fun one day because President left us the keys to his house to go get the food early in the morning. We joked about telling him we spent the night and had a party (:

We got a large map printed off of the mission this week!

We pulled another million pesos out of the bank as pictured below.. (:

We went up to santiago one day as well which was a blast because we went by bus and metro. So we took a big bus up there and then went underground and traveled to all the different places to get our tasks done. Its ridicoulous how many people are going to different places up there in Santiago. We got one one metro that was so full it looked like those crazy japanese youtube videos where they just try to shove you on there before the doors close! We got one one bus that had a life band playing, and we also witnessed a drumline strike in the downtown central area. We got back to Rancagua, and got to do a service project with a member cleaning out a big pool.

And then for all your enjoyement, I had another mini vacation today. I actually do work during the week so you all know. But today we woke up at 530 to get onto the road and traveled to a little place called Pichilemu. It is one of the surf capitals of the world! They host huge surf competions there every year. We saw some huge waves! Some of the biggest ones Ive seen. This little town is so cool! Its just a little surf shack town where people are literally beach bums. Apparently Jack Johnson has a house down there and I got a picture with it! We went to the punto de los lobos. The point of the wolves. Its super famous here in Chile. It was super cold there, but there were some odd 50 surfers out there. It was way cool! Such a beautiful place, and it was amazing just to sit up on a huge cliff over looking the ocean and thanking God for this wonderful place to live. Its so great to sit back and Thank God for our breath each day, and the ability to walk or see! Never take things for Granted (:

So heres some pictures. Enjoy.

Love, Elder McGee

p.s. I turn 19 tomorrow which is why there is a big 19 in the sand!