3/14/2016

Hey amigos!Elder Tolley and I had a good week! We definitely worked hard. Thisweek there was a lot of meetings though. There was a district meeting,a zone conference, and a zone training all this week and on differentdays. It was crazy. So much driving!We still saw tons of miracles this week though. We are still teachingCaleb and he's progressing well. Unfortunately he'll be out of townfor a little bit of this week because of Spring Break though. Westarted teaching the boyfriend of the daughter of a really cool andactive family in the ward. As well as that, we met a neat lady namedLucitia, whom was a former investigator who we put on date for April2nd to be baptized. And yeah, good things are happening. :)I have thought a ton about faith this week. Faith in the Son of God isremarkable. It motivates us to act. As well as that, when we exercisegreat faith it makes things happen that would not have otherwisehappened if we didn't exercise faith in the Lord. In Jacob 4 it saysif we "search the prophets" (study the scriptures) then "our faithbecometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name ofJesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves ofthe sea". Personally, I don't care to move mountains. I desire to movesomething much more important, that is, people closer to God. All ofus our capable of unshakable faith in Jesus Christ through prayer,scripture study, making and keeping covenants, and obeying thecommandments. I love the Lord and his work! I hope everyone has agreat week! :)-Elder McGee

3/7/2016

Hello Family and Friends!Me and my new companion worked super hard this week. His name is ElderTolley and he is from Illinois. He's a good guy and I'm excited to behis trainer. One thing cool I love about new missionaries is how muchfaith they have. At least with my experience they don't expectrejection they expect the opposite.My favorite miracle of the week was meeting a guy named Caleb.One day we were where our investigators lives but they weren'thome so we decided to knock on a random door that we felt prompted toknock on. The first door we knocked on was a student named Caleb atthe University here. We talked to him on his doorstep and then he letus in his home and we powerfully taught message of the restoration.That happened on Saturday, we also invited them out to church the nextday. We got his number so that we could call him in the morning andremind him about church. When we call the next morning there was noanswer. We wanted to be able to say that we did everything we possiblycould to help him get to church so we went by before church andknocked on his door but no answer. So we went to church and rightbefore the opening prayer he walked in the chapel. What a miracle!This is truly the Lord's work, we had little to do with that. I justhope I can be a well tuned instrument in the Lord's hands. Withcomplete faith all things are possible and there is no need to fearman. "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? theLord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?". (Psalms27:1)Love you all and hope you have a great week! :)-Elder McGee

Me & My Mission Sons

 

2/29/2016

Hola!So, this was the last week of the transfer and a lot of good thingshappened! The people here are so prepared to receive the restoredgospel. Emporia is a great place. We are still working with andteaching David and he's still working towards baptism. He's doinggood.But we got some kinda bummer news last night. Me and Elder Lemon getalong super well and are making a lot of good things happen here andhe is getting transferred on Wednesday. And get this, I am gettinganother brand new missionary and I'll be training again. I was alittle upset to be honest when I first got a call last night from theAssistants because I've already done it a few times and I thought Iwas done. But I've prayed quite a bit about it trying to align my willwith God's will and I finally came to good terms with the fact thatI'm going to be training again. But this time as a District Leader, aswell in a big district. I'm often baffled at how much trust the Lordhas for 19-20 year boys and girls. Especially for me. This is NO DOUBThis work! HahaWhen Peter and Andrew were called by the Savior to be Apostles, theSavior said, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." The Lordturned some fisherman into remarkable Men of God who helped changemany hearts and converted many to the gospel. The Lord can turn all ofus into people we never dreamed we could become as we accept hisinvitation to Follow Him. It's a molding process though that is toughand hard. But worth it. Hope everyone has a great week!

Love, Elder McGee

2/22/16

Hello! This was an interesting week. My companion got really sick
Monday night and it lasted until about Thursday morning. Then Thursday
night one of our investigators had a baptismal interview with my Zone Leader. Didn't
pass it. I was baffled to say the least, I've never had anyone not
pass a baptismal interview before. The Zone Leader said the investigator didn't have
a strong enough testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet.
Anyways, hopefully we can just continue to build faith and still
help the investigator be baptized. Because the investigator was slightly rubbed the wrong way after that experience.
BUT, there was still a lot of good things that happened this week! :) haha
We found a lot of cool new people, and have been progressing the
people we already have. I also went to a really inspiring and
revelatory meeting this week called District Leader Accountabilities.
It's a meeting with President Bell where we pretty much just receive
instruction to be better leaders and just people in general. It was
way good!
But I was reading in the New Testament earlier this week and came
across a verse I really like. It states, "But be ye doers of the word,
and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." (James 1:22).
Essentially we need to APPLY the Word of God when we hear it or it
does us no good.
So many times we go to church, or a fireside, or a mission and we
learn how to "fly" and then we "walk" home. Let us all apply the
amazing gospel truths we learn so we can continually progress towards
being more like our Savior. I know that Christ lives. I know that we
and others can be cleansed and healed from the effects of our wrong
choices. And I know that joy and a good attitude towards different
things that happen throughout our lives are a choice of our own.
I hope everyone has a great week! :)
-Elder McGee

2/15/16

Hey Amigos,
Time is just flying. Like how in the world have I been in Emporia a
month already?
We have some really solid people we are teaching who are progressing
towards baptism. David is getting baptized this weekend! Super excited
for that, and so is he. This means the world to his wife as well, who
is a member of the church. It makes me so happy to make others happy.
But in addition to David, we also have Tina and Jason. They are a
couple who we were referred to by a family in the church. They are the
ones I was talking about last week. But yeah, they are progressing
super well too.
So the Sister missionaries in my district had a baptism on Saturday!
Her name is Nora, and she is this 59 year old woman who is so sweet
yet super sassy and hilarious. Anyways, the day before her baptism I
did her baptismal interview. That was such a neat and spiritual
experience to be able to interview her one on one prior to her
baptism.
This is such a great work, I love the Lord and my mission! I hope
everyone has a great week!
-Elder McGee

2/8/2016

Hey Loved Ones,

I absolutely love being a missionary. This is the most amazing work! This week was great, we saw a ton of miracles come to pass. We are finding people to teach through members of the church. We now teach this guy David who is the husband of a member of the church. He is progressing towards baptism on the 20th of this month. Then last night we had an amazing experience. We were in a member families home, and we were teaching a nonmember FAMILY that this member family had invited into their home to hear from the missionaries from their church. We powerfully and by the Spirit of the Lord taught the uniquemessage of the Restoration. They then accepted the invitation to work towards being baptized on the 27th of February. It was remarkable, like that is how it's supposed to be.I testify that aligning our will with God's will brings happiness and is what is best for us. The past 18 months of my life is the closest my will has been to God's which is "...to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Moses 1:39) I am far from perfect, but I definitely try. My "natural man" is kind of a punk. Haha BUT, as we simply "yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit" we can put off the natural man and "becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord".I hope everyone has a marvelous week! I love you all!Elder McGee

2/1/2016

Hello Family & Friends!
Hope everyone had a great week! Our week was glorious.
Mont (Our main guy progressing towards baptism) is doing great and
should be baptized this month. He is still working on quitting smoking
but we have faith he will be able to overcome it with the help of
Christ.
We met a lot of cool people this past week, there's Kenny who is
trying to strengthen his faith in God, he's been through a lot but has
overcome it all. There's Earnest and Destiny who are very humble and
willing to learn, Hugo who finally realizes he needs to lead his
family to Christ, and Jeremy who is a Jew but says he is open minded.
A lot of the less actives are making progress too, coming to church
regularly now, and working towards the temple!  All of these people
are awesome to meet with, nothing better!
We are working through members a lot as well, we picked up two new
investigators apart of part-member families this week. Talking to a
lot of people! There is a gem of a scripture in 2 Corinthians 9 and it
says, "He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he
which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully."
In other words, if you work hard and talk to a lot of people you will
have a lot of people to teach. I love this work, and I know it is the
Lord's.
Have a Marvelous week everyone! Love ya:)
-Elder McGee